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

Page Med today history.

Thousands of employees at federal health agencies were laid off as part of a chaotic, slow-moving purge by the Trump administration over the holiday weekend.

Although the total number of laid-off employees appears lower than initially forecast, the changes have caused confusion as some staff received layoff notices over the weekend, while others waited for planned layoffs that never happened. This includes members of the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service, a two-year fellowship program that trains the next generation of “disease detectives.”

An employee at an HHS agency who asked to remain anonymous described “chaos and confusion” as management “tries to sort everything out.”

Initial reports suggested that about 5,200 HHS agency employees — out of a total of about 80,000 employees — would be laid off, but as of Tuesday the totals were unclear. The focus was on “probationary” employees, that is, those who were typically in their first year of employment.

Page Med today has summarized the layoffs at each agency below.

The medical and public health communities criticized the move, led by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Effectiveness, or DOGE.

Eight recent former leaders of federal health agencies under the Biden administration – including former NIH Director Monica Bertagnolli, MD; Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, former CMS administrator; former FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, MD; and former CDC Director Mandy Cohen, MD, MPH – signed a letter of support for the laid-off employees.

“The Trump Administration has now begun arbitrarily removing HHS personnel from their positions, leaving no doubt that the health and well-being of families and communities across the country will suffer,” the former leaders wrote in the letter.

“These individuals are not numbers on a spreadsheet,” the letter continued. “They are dedicated and passionate public servants who have dedicated their careers to working on behalf of the American people.”

“We owe them a debt of gratitude, not a rosy note,” the letter concludes.

Jeff Nesbit, former HHS deputy secretary for public affairs, shared a “thank you” letter signed by 140 former policy officials who worked alongside HHS officials during the Obama and Biden administrations, including former HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra.

“Please know that the time and energy you have invested in your work does not go unrecognized,” the letter said. “We appreciate all of your efforts, especially your focus on providing care to those who are struggling. You embody the mission and vision of the Department of Health and Human Services.”

Robert Steinbrook, MD, director of the health research group at Public Citizen, who has long been a thorn in the side of federal agencies — particularly the FDA — called the layoffs “a public health disaster.”

“There’s no benefit to this,” Steinbrook said Page Med today. “From the outside, it seems crazy.”

“Staff must be reduced from time to time for budgetary reasons in many organizations, and there are ways to do it carefully and with consideration of individual and organizational needs – and there are ways not to do it,” Steinbrook said. “And that’s exactly the right way not to do it.”

Here’s a look at the impact on each agency:

CDC

While reports initially indicated that about 1,300 probationary employees, or about 10 percent of the CDC’s workforce, would be cut, that number has fallen to about 750, according to NPR.

While members of the agency’s Epidemic Intelligence Service were initially told they would be furloughed, as of Tuesday they had still not received emails informing them of their layoffs, multiple sources at the CDC said. Page Med today.

However, all members of the CDC’s Laboratory Leadership Service (LLS) were laid off on Friday and Saturday, these sources said. The LLS was created around ten years ago, following a series of laboratory failures. LLS fellows help CDC and state labs improve testing and meet federal standards, according to the Associated Press

FDA

About 700 FDA employees have been laid off, according to the Associated Press. This included employees of centers that sell food, medical devices and tobacco products.

Ross Segan, MD, MBA, head of medical device security, was also fired, STATUS reported. Segan had only taken up his position in September and was therefore on a 2-year probationary period within the agency.

A significant number of employees were laid off from the agency’s devices division, which STATUS noted that it has a strained relationship with Elon Musk’s company Neuralink.

Finally, Jim Jones, FDA deputy commissioner for human food, resigned after 89 people in his department lost their jobs, according to the Washington Post.

“I looked forward to working to further the Department’s agenda to improve the health of Americans by reducing diet-related chronic diseases and the risks associated with chemicals in food,” Jones wrote in his resignation letter, according to the department. Job. “It has become increasingly clear that with the Trump administration’s disregard for the people needed to implement your agenda, it would have been pointless for me to continue in this role.”

NIH

Between 1,000 and 1,200 NIH employees were laid off on Saturday, according to NPR — a few hundred fewer than the 1,500 initially planned.

CMS

Policy reported that employees working for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) were laid off, along with employees in the CMS office that oversees the Affordable Care Act.

Arielle Kane, who was fired from CMMI, posted on

Other agencies

It’s unclear how many people have been fired from HHS’s parent organization. Reports suggest cuts have been made to the Administration for Children and Families, as well as the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response.

Renee Wegrzyn, PhD, the first director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), established in 2022, announced on LinkedIn that she “does not [has] opportunity to serve” as director. It is unclear how many employees were terminated from ARPA-H.

Additionally, while the Indian Health Service was initially going to lay off some 950 employees, new HHS Director Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reportedly reversed those layoffs.

And while‘This is not an HHS agency, many healthcare professionals work for the Department of Veterans Affairs. The VA issued a press release on February 13 announcing that it had laid off more than 1,000 employees, mostly during their probationary period.