Notifications came over the weekend and landed in the inboxes of federal scientists, doctors and public health experts. You no longer need your work.
The National Institutes of Health rejected an estimated 1,200 employees (1,200 employees including a promising young investigator expected to have a bigger role).
Two prestigious training programs have been hampered at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One will embed recent public health alumni in the local health department, and the other will develop the next generation of doctoral degrees. Laboratory scientist. But the “sick detectives” tracking pandemics around the world were clearly spared, perhaps due to a fuss among alumni, probably after being told that the majority of their members would be let go on Friday.
President Trump's plan to reduce the size of the federal workforce has hit thousands of civil servants over the past few days. But the cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services, which comes shortly after the coronavirus pandemic, the worst public health crisis of a century, have been particularly harsh. Experts say they threaten the firing to expose the country to a further shortage of healthcare workers and threaten to put Americans at risk if another crisis breaks out.
For example, public health officials are tracking the deadly bird flu tensions that say remain at a low risk for Americans. However, in recent weeks, it has claimed its first casualty in the United States. This is a Louisiana patient who was exposed to a backyard herd.
“It's not cancelled,” miniaturization billionaire Elon Musk wrote on social media in response to the blow of the trending intelligence reporting agency's suspicious thing.
The fire also removed next-generation leaders from the CDC, NIH, Food and Drug Administration and other agencies overseen by the department.
Dr. David Fleming, chairman of the CDC Director's Advisory Committee, said: He added: “A lot of energy and time was spent recruiting those people. It's now thrown out the window.”
Form Retter emails are “not suitable for continuous employment” and “performance was not appropriate” as “competent, knowledge and skills do not meet the needs of the agency” and “performance was not appropriate” to which the recipients are told. It's not suitable for ongoing employment.”
On Monday, eight officials who led the health agency under President Joseph R. Biden Jr., including the head of the CDC, NIH and FDA, issued a joint statement denounced the cut. We have listed a range of initiatives, from fighting the opioid epidemic to bringing primary care to rural communities that are “essential to our country's economic security” and carried out by civil servants.
“These individuals are not numbers on the spreadsheet,” they wrote, adding, “We owed them a thank you debt, not a pink slip.”
The fire also rattles off graduate students looking to careers in public health and biomedical sciences.
“We're excited to be aware of the importance of our efforts to help people understand how we can help people understand,” said Dr. Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. “Do they have jobs? Will they have public health employment in the future?”
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said “we will take action to support the President's broader efforts to restructure and streamline the federal government.”
“This is to ensure that HHS meets the best and most efficient standards for the American people,” spokesman Andrew Nixon said in an email Friday.
Like other governments, the cuts are targeting probation employees with work for less than a year. However, the cut began with his work by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a well-known vaccine skeptic and newly confirmed health secretary. NIH officials are particularly concerned that seeking resignation could potentially target more senior employees.
Kennedy has repeatedly said he intends to clean his home with various federal agencies. He warned that the health agency would cut 600 jobs. In October, after merging Trump's presidential election with the presidential campaign, he instructed FDA officials to “keep your records and pack your bags.”
Approximately 700 staff members have been cut by the FDA, including lawyers, physicians and doctoral level reviewers in the medical device, cigarettes, food and drug sectors.
The weekend cuts touched all kinds of healthcare workers. They are not only scientists and disease hunters, but also administrators who oversee grant proposals. Analysts are computer experts who are trying to find new ways to reduce health costs and improve government outdated systems to track health information.
Arielle Kane was hired in May to work on a new project aimed at improving maternal health outcomes in Medicaid. She was convinced from her manager on Friday that work at Medicare and Medicaid services centers was safe. Saturday afternoon she received an email saying she had been fired for poor performance.
“I was very excited about working on maternal health and Medicaid,” Kane said. “It feels very intense and intense that I finally got the job I wanted, received good performance reviews and was fired very unexpectedly for a poor performance.”
According to three people familiar with the program, the Laboratory Leadership Service, a prestigious training fellowship at the CDC, was hit hard. Of the 24 fellows, four were protected as they were in the commissioned corps of the US Public Health Services, a uniformed branch where members work across the government. The other 20 have been let go.
The program was launched in 2015 in response to laboratory quality and safety concerns and is the sister program of the more prominent epidemiological intelligence agency, with EIS strengthening relationships between epidemiologists and laboratory scientists. It was developed for. Applicants must obtain a PhD. Microbiology, organic chemistry or another laboratory-related discipline.
Some fellows are assigned to state and local public health labs. Others work at CDC in Atlanta. During outbreaks like the coronavirus pandemic, they will be sent to the field along with EIS officers.
“EIS has such a strong culture and alumni. The answer is, “I thanked God,” Dr. Michael Iademarco said. No one knows about it, so I did an outdoor research. ”
The institution also lost the Presidential Management Fellow assigned to the CDC under a decades-old government initiative that describes as “the best leadership development program for advanced degree holders in all academic fields.” Ta.
Veterans at the health agency said they are troubled by the seemingly random nature of the cut.
“If we need to reduce the budget, it happens at every level of government, but there must be a thoughtful approach,” said Dr. Joshua M. Scharfstein, former vice-chairman of the FDA. He has a very specialized role and knowledge. ”
Dr Fleming, former associate director of the CDC, said many health professionals can earn more in the private sector, but have chosen to join the government because they are attracted to public services. Ta. The ending would make it difficult to attract new talent, he said.
“We're cutting our hands to cut our hands,” he said.
Christina Jewellett, Roni Carin Rabin and Sarah Cliff Reports of contributions.
