Deemed Ineffective, Tens of Thousands of US Health Department Employees Reduced

WASHINGTON, WEDNESDAY - The United States Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, began implementing its staff reduction plan on Tuesday (1/4/2025) local time. Layoffs and early retirement programs will reduce HHS employees from 82,000 to 62,000 people.

Next, HHS will continue this employee reduction step with organizational restructuring and budget efficiency to streamline the department which is considered bloated.

Minister of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr., on Thursday (27/3/2025), announced the "Health Again" work agenda or a healthier USA. The agenda began with a reduction in staff within the HHS environment.

From the staff reduction measures, around 10,000 employees were laid off. Meanwhile, approximately 10,000 others accepted offers for early retirement and voluntary resignation. Most of these employees were active staff at the HHS office in Washington, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) office in Atlanta, and smaller offices across the country.

The reduction of employees is also part of the federal budget efficiency plan proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump. Layoffs, along with early retirements and voluntary resignations, will save the HHS budget $1.8 billion per year, or approximately 0.1 percent of HHS's annual budget of $1.8 trillion.

According to photos and testimonials uploaded on social media, some employees of HHS received notifications of layoffs or termination of employment (PHK) via email on Tuesday (1/4/2025) at 5:00 a.m. local time. Through the email, the employees were informed to take administrative leave. A Reuters source stated that the leave reflects union requirements regarding a 60-day notice period.

Some employees only found out they were laid off upon arriving at the office area. Upon reaching the premises in Washington, Maryland, and Atlanta, they had to stand in long lines. They were unable to enter the office building because their access cards were not functioning. Security personnel informed them that they had been laid off.

The security officers only gave them tickets. As observed by Reuters journalists, the tickets listed several department phone numbers. They could contact those numbers to retrieve their personal belongings at the office.

“The revolution begins today!” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tweeted on social media X hours after employees received the email.

“We feel sorry for those who lost their jobs. But the reality is clear: what we’ve been doing isn’t working,” Kennedy tweeted on X.

Americans are getting sicker every year, Kennedy said, while spending at the federal agencies that guide U.S. health policy continues to rise. Much of the health budget goes to pay for health insurance. So, Kennedy said, the layoffs are part of a broader reform of the department he leads.

The layoffs, Kennedy explained, are intended to refocus HHS on its core mission: chronic disease prevention.

In addition to the layoffs, Kennedy is restructuring the organization. Some 28 divisions within HHS will be merged into 15. The restructuring will also include the creation of a new division called the Administration for a Healthy America, or AHA.

The laid-offs include researchers, scientists, physicians, support staff and senior leaders. The scientists laid off include leading scientists who oversee public health, cancer research and vaccine and drug approvals.

These experts have long guided U.S. government policymaking on medical research, drug approvals, and other issues. They have served in key HHS agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Among the senior experts and leaders who have resigned or been fired is Peter Stein, a director at the FDA. He resigned on Tuesday.

Then Brian King, the FDA's Director of Tobacco Products and Peter Marks, the Director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research who has a lot to do with vaccines, were fired.

"The FDA as we know it is over. Most of the leaders with institutional knowledge and deep understanding of product development and safety are no longer in office," former FDA Commissioner Robert Califf wrote in a LinkedIn post.

"I believe history will see this as a colossal mistake," wrote Califf, who resigned at the end of the Biden administration.

HHS had not released a breakdown of the employees affected by the layoffs as of Tuesday. But last week, along with Kennedy’s announcement, HHS detailed the number of employees affected.

The details include 3,500 FDA employees who inspect and set safety standards for drugs, medical devices and food.

The CDC is cutting 2,400 employees, who monitor infectious disease outbreaks and work with public health agencies across the country.

Then 1,200 employees at NIH, the world's leading medical research institution, were cut. Then 300 employees at CMS were affected. They oversee the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and Medicaid.

The cuts not only deprive the U.S. federal government of many key health experts, they also raise concerns about how the U.S. will respond to health emergencies, such as the ongoing measles outbreak and the spread of bird flu.

"Congress and citizens must join us in fighting back," said Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees.

“Our health, safety and security depend on a strong and well-staffed public health system,” Kelley added.

The budget cuts drew criticism from Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. “The goal of the CDC budget cuts appears to be to create a much smaller infectious disease agency. But it destroys the kinds of work and collaboration that allow local and national governments to prevent deaths and respond to emergencies,” Benjamin said.

Meanwhile, a coalition of state attorneys general sued the Trump administration on Tuesday, saying the cuts are illegal, would reverse progress in addressing the opioid crisis, or the addiction and overdose epidemic, and would destabilize the mental health system. (AP/AFP/REUTERS)