In his long-winded joint address to Congress last month, Donald Trump ad libbed (at least I hope it wasn’t part of his written speech) about unleashing his next set of stricter tariffs on April 2, because he was too superstitious to do it on the first, April Fool’s Day. Apparently, he wasn’t too superstitious to designate that day for laying off 10,000 employees across the nation’s life-saving health agencies, including the CDC, FDA, and NIH. The gutting of these agencies’ workforces ran the gamut from staffers who keep operations running, to directors and experts. To make sure everything was done as efficiently cowardly and undignified as possible, the Trump administration, with HHS head RFK Jr. out in front, left it to security guards to confirm to employees whether they’d lost their job or not. Employees had to wait on unusually long lines to enter their office buildings as security guards cross checked ID badges against the fired list.
RFK Jr. claims to have a heart: Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has described the cuts, which combined with other recent departures will reduce total headcount to 62,000 from 82,000, as essential to streamlining a bloated bureaucracy. However, they have included the ouster of top scientists overseeing public health, cancer research and vaccine and drug approvals, raising concerns about how the U.S. will respond to health emergencies, such as the ongoing measles outbreak and spreading bird flu. “Our hearts go out to those who have lost their jobs. But the reality is clear: what we’ve been doing isn’t working,” Kennedy posted on X, adding that the changes were necessary to focus HHS on its core mission of preventing chronic disease.
‘The FDA as we’ve known it is finished’: Departures at the Food and Drug Administration, considered the world’s top drugs regulator, included Peter Stein, the director of the Office of New Drugs in its Center for Drug Evaluation and Research division. He resigned on Tuesday when faced with being fired, according to a source familiar with the matter. … “The FDA as we’ve known it is finished, with most of the leaders with institutional knowledge and a deep understanding of product development and safety no longer employed,” former Commissioner Robert Califf wrote in a LinkedIn post. “I believe that history will see this a huge mistake,” he wrote. “It will be interesting to hear from the new leadership how they plan to put ‘Humpty Dumpty’ back together again.”
They left the dirty work to security guards: In downtown Washington, employees were being informed by security guards that they were fired as they attempted to get into the Mary Switzer Building that houses several HHS offices and divisions, one employee on the scene told Reuters. “Dozens of people have been RIF’d this way so far,” the employee said, using an acronym for “reduction in force.” They included a deaf person for whom the security guard had to type on a phone the message that she had been fired. “So now it’s fallen on the security guards to tell people they’ve lost their jobs,” said the employee.
A ticket for their troubles: An FDA employee said staff had to present their badges at the building entrance and those who had been fired were given a ticket and told to return home, according to one source. People waited in line for hours not knowing what would happen when they reached the front. … The ticket, seen by Reuters, listed phone numbers for 10 different departments for employees to call to retrieve their “essential” equipment. … Fired staff received emails saying the termination did not reflect on their service, performance or conduct, and were being placed on administrative leave, according to an email seen by Reuters. One source said the leave reflected a union requirement for 60 days notice.
Among the programs we’ve lost entirely or that are severely impaired, are HIV prevention, TB prevention, lead poisoning prevention, water safety, worker safety, asthma & air quality, reproductive health. Oh, and did I mention that’s just a small list from only the CDC? But hey, at least HHS is now “streamlined” and no longer a “bloated bureaucracy.” Rachel Maddow had Dr. David Kessler on her show Wednesday night. He’s a former FDA commissioner and was appointed by the Biden administration to work on their Covid response. Dr. Kessler didn’t mince words, plainly saying that if these jobs aren’t restored within a week, the US is in serious, serious trouble for this generation and many to come. He also made a point that might actually work on the narcissism of the baby-fisted president, in pointing out that the administration has just laid off basically the whole network that saved Trump’s life when he got Covid in 2020. Let’s see if the argument penetrates that suntan-stained skull.
Photos credit: Getty, IMAGO/Francis Chung / Pool via CNP /MediaPunch/Avalon