CDC ‘disease detectors’ among hundreds fired as Trump administration ramps up agency cuts
On Saturday, the Trump administration has completed hundreds of employees in diseases and prevention control centers, including colleagues responsible for major public health roles, according to two exporters in the agency, which spoke on the condition that their identity is not disclosed out of revenge.
Among them was about twenty workers who were formed Laboratory driving serviceOr LLS, a group responsible for training the employees of the Public Health Laboratory and supporting response efforts. The fellowship program was launched for two years in 2015, with a focus on laboratory safety and organizational compliance.
“We have reached a new LLS logo:“ Disease detectors. ”A current colleague, who was among those who received the termination notifications, said,” If you are not testing, you do not know what the disease is. “
Email messages were sent to LLS employees on Saturday evening and pointed to the weak performance as a reason for the shooting, although most of the employees who were rejected have “excellent” reviews, an official at the Disease Control Center said.
Multiple outlets stated that a larger sister program in the Center for Disease Control is called Epidemiological Intelligence ServiceOr EIS, known as the “disease investigator” in the agency, is expected to have significant discounts as well. As of Sunday, the two officials who spoke to NBC News did not hear the shooting of EIS. One, a senior official at the Center for Disease Control, said that everyone who will be terminated had been notified by Sunday.
“Even if EIS is rescued, there are many other fellowships that were not so, and this is a pipeline for the next generation of the leaders of the Disease Control Center,” said a senior official. “We cut the knees. The general health will paralyze for decades.”
Other departments that saw the discounts included Collections of Presidential AdministrationWhich aims to develop public health leaders in the future, and Public Health participant programThe two officials said that the eyes have to have colleagues for local health agencies.
The process of termination was characterized by chaos and a lack of transparency.
Nearly two weeks ago, the Personnel Management Office has appointed the Diseases Control Center for Research through the list of employees who were in the limited positions or position It has been “preserved” the critical task “or” not the critical task. ” According to the officials of the Disease Control Center, the menus did not seem to have been used in final shooting decisions.
White House representatives, CDC and the Ministry of Health and Humanitarian Services immediately did not respond to suspension requests.
In recent years, LLS Fellows has helped test dengue fever in the SAMOA and Oropouche virus test in Florida. In 2020, the group supervised the Covid-19 test for thousands of residents of Arizona.
The LLS colleague, who received the termination notice, said that their co -workers were less concerned about their jobs than what was indicated by public health moves.
“We could go to more profitable professions,” said colleague, who spoke on the condition that his identity was not disclosed on charges of giving up the remaining weeks of the paid leave. “We could have been working with Pharma. We could have been working in biotechnology or something like that and made more money. But we are all enthusiastic about public health and we just wanted to see public health succeed.”
The separation messages were sent the next day to the Trump administration Invented from CDC leaders Plans to dismiss nearly 1,300 employees under the agency, approximately one of the total workforce.
A representative of the Ministry of Health and Humanitarian Services, which supervises the center of diseases control, said previously that the cuts were part of the greatest effort of the administration to reduce the size of the federal workforce.
“HHS follows management guidelines and take measures to support the efforts of the wider president to restructure and simplify the federal government. This is to ensure that HHS is better to serve the American people at the highest level and more efficient,” Andrew Nixon, the director of communications in the department.
As part of the broad discounts on the federal government implemented by the Trump Administration and the Ministry of Governmental Efficiency in Elon Musk, the Personnel Management Office directed the leaders of the federal agencies last week He refused employees under observationIt is possible that it affects hundreds of thousands of people classified under this situation. Since the guidance was sent, at least some test staff have been sent by notifications by ancient warriors affairs Ministry of Transportation.
