Here’s the Extent of the Fallout From Trump’s HHS Purge

Medping today history.

Thousands of federal health agencies have been released in a purge of the chaotic and slow Trump administration during the holiday weekend.

Although the total number of dismissed employees seems to be smaller than expected, changes have sowed confusion while some staff have received dismissal notices during the weekend, while others were waiting for expected fire that never came. This includes members of the CDC epidemic intelligence service, a 2 -year scholarship program that trains the next generation of “disease detectives”.

An employee of an agency within the HHS who asked to remain anonymous described “chaos and confusion” while leadership “tries to settle everything”.

The first reports suggested that around 5,200 employees in HHS agencies – among around 80,000 employees in total – would be released, but the total was unclear on Tuesday. Emphasis was placed on “probationary” employees or those generally during the first year of their employment.

Medping today summed up the layoffs in each agency below.

The medical and public health communities castigated this decision, led by the Ministry of Elon Musk’s government efficiency, or DOGE.

Eight former recent leaders of federal health agencies as part of the Biden administration – including the former NIH director, Monica Bertagnolli, MD; Former administrator of the CMS Chiquita Brooks-Lasure; The former FDA commissioner, Robert Califf, MD; And the former CDC director, Mandy Cohen, MD, MPH – signed a letter to support licensed employees.

“The Trump administration has now started to arbitrarily withdraw HHS staff from their posts, leaving no doubt that the health and well-being of families and communities across the country will suffer accordingly,” the former leaders in the letter wrote.

“These people are not figures on a spreadsheet,” continued the letter. “These are dedicated and passionate officials who have committed their career to work on behalf of the American people.”

“We owe them a gratitude debt, not a pink shift,” concluded the letter.

Jeff Nesbit, former deputy secretary for public affairs of HHS, shared a letter “thank you” signed by 140 alumni appointed politicians who worked alongside civil servants in HHS during the Obama and Biden administrations, including the former secretary of the HHS, Xavier Becerra.

“Please know that the time and energy you have invested in your work is not unrecognized,” said the letter. “We appreciate all your efforts, in particular your concentration on the provision of care to those who have trouble. You embody the mission and the vision of the Ministry of Health and Social Services.”

Robert Steinbrook, MD, director of the Public Citizen Health Research Group, who has long been a spine to the Federal Agency team – in particular the FDA – qualified the dismissals of “disaster for public health”.

“There is no advantage for this,” said Steinbrook Medping today. “From the outside, it seems insane.”

“The staff must be reduced from time to time for budgetary reasons in many organizations, and there are ways to do so carefully and taking into account individuals and organizational needs – and there are ways not to do so,” said Steinbrook. “And that’s exactly the way of not doing it.”

Here is an overview of the impact on individual agencies:

CDC

While the reports originally indicate that around 1,300 employees probatively – about 10% of the CDC workforce – would be reduced, the number fell to around 750, according to NPR.

While scholarship holders of the agency’s epidemic intelligence service were originally informed that they would be released on Tuesday, they had still not received emails informing them of their dismissal, several sources at the CDC have declared Medping today.

All CDC Laboratory Leadership Service (LLS) scholarship holders were dismissed on Friday and Saturday, these sources said. The LLS was created about ten years ago, following a series of laboratory failures. LLS scholarship holders help CDC and state laboratories to improve tests and comply with federal standards, according to the Associated Press

Fda

Approximately 700 FDA staff were released, according to the Associated Press. This included employees in centers that manage food, medical devices and tobacco products.

Ross Segan, MD, MBA, head of medical devices, has also been finished, Stat reported. Segan had only started his job in September, he was therefore taken in a 2 -year probation period within the agency.

A significant number of employees have been terminated from the agency’s devices division, which Stat Noted has a tense relationship with the Société d’Elon Musk Neuralink.

Finally, Jim Jones, assistant commissioner of the FDA to human food, resigned after 89 people from his department lost their jobs, according to the Washington Post.

“I was looking forward to working to continue the ministry’s program to improve the health of Americans by reducing chronic diseases related to the diet and the risks of chemicals,” Jones wrote in his resignation letter, according to the Job. “It is increasingly clear than with the disdain of the Trump administration for the very necessary people to implement your program, however, it would have been unsuccessful for me to continue in this role.”

Nih

Between 1,000 and 1,200 NIH employees were dismissed on Saturday, according to NPR – A few hundred less than the first 1,500 expected.

CMS

Politico said that employees working for centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) have been released, as well as employees of the CMS office which supervises the affordable care law.

Arielle Kane, who was dismissed from CMMI, posted on X that she and her colleagues who were dismissed “worked to improve the results of maternal health at lower costs so that fewer pregnant women would die in this country. I thought it would be good in your agenda?”

Other agencies

It is not clear how many people were dismissed from the HHS parental organization. Reports suggest that cuts have been made to the administration for children and families, as well as the administration for strategic preparation and response.

Renee Wegrzyn, PHD, inaugural director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), which was created in 2022, announced on LinkedIn that it “no longer” [has] The opportunity to serve “as director. He is not clear how many employees have been dismissed from Arpa-H.

In addition, while the Indian Health Service was initially licensed some 950 employees, the newly confirmed HHS director Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would have canceled these layoffs.

And while‘S not an HHS agency, many health professionals work for the Veterans Department. The VA has published a press release on February 13 announcing that it rejected more than 1,000 employees, mainly in their period of probation.