The Donald Trump administration began firing staffers at major US health agencies on Tuesday as it moves to cut down approximately 10,000 jobs in the department. The developments come less than a week after the Trump administration announced plans to lay off 10,000 employees from the Health and Human Services Department — paring the team down by nearly 20,000 staffers through various means. The layoffs — which will affect the CDC and FDA — have been hailed as an essential step by Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. The cuts however raise fresh concerns about how the US will safely oversee the health sector and respond to emergencies.
According to a New York Times report quoting workers, the notices had begun arriving around 5:00 am on Tuesday and affected teams responsible for everything from global health to medical devices to communications. Hundreds of federal health workers, including doctors in senior leadership positions, discovered they were out of jobs in the morning as the vast restructuring process started. Many discovered that they had been fired after they tried to scan their badges and enter their workplaces.
An FDA employee told Reuters that staff had to present their badges at the building entrance and those who had been fired were given tickets and asked to return home. These slips included the phone numbers for 10 different departments for employees to call to retrieve their “essential” equipment.
The news agency also quoted sources to report that Peter Stein — the director of the Office of New Drugs in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research division — had resigned on Tuesday when faced with being fired. Meanwhile Brian King — the head of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products division — was fired on Tuesday morning. They join a growing list of top leadership departures from various divisions of the Food and Drug Administration. Staff have also been leaving and some employees reviewing products say they are struggling to meet their deadlines.
An email viewed by The Associated Press also shows that some senior-level employees were placed on leave and subsequently offered a possible transfer to the Indian Health Service in locations including Alaska and given until end of Wednesday to respond. The move is being viewed by some workers as a tactic to force people out.
