Current Events > The CDC Has Been Gutted

(+) Yeah! (+)

Thousands of CDC employees who worked on things like preventing HIV and lead poisoning have been told they were subject to a reduction in force. Experts say people will die.

https://www.wired.com/story/cdc-gutted-rif/

Thousands of federal employees at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were notified early Tuesday morning that they were subject to a reduction in force, or RIF, sources tell WIRED, shuttering programs that directly serve and inform the American public.

The effect was felt across the CDC, as workers in the Division of Environmental Health Science and Practice (DEHSP), the Division of Population Health, the Division of HIV Prevention, the Division of Reproductive Health, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, and the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control all received RIF notices today.

Dozens of other programs throughout the CDCs national centers for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion; HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention; Environmental Health; Immunization and Respiratory Diseases; and the Global Health center were also impacted.

Multiple sources in the Department of Health and Human Services, the agency that houses the CDC, say that RIF notices began going out around 5 am ET on Tuesday. Employees across HHS offices arrived at buildings only to discover that their badges no longer worked, sources tell WIRED.

I regret to inform you that you are being affected by a reduction in force (RIF) action, reads the email to affected employees. This RIF does not reflect directly on your service, performance, or conduct. It is being taken solely for the reasons stated in the memorandum. After you receive this notice you will be placed on administrative leave and will no longer have building access beginning Tuesday, April 1, unless directed otherwise by your leadership. The memorandum refers to the February 11 executive order from President Donald Trump titled Implementing the President's Department of Government Efficiency Workforce Optimization Initiative.

The cuts today at CDC targeted programs that address all aspects of American lives, a source at the CDC tells WIRED. This will lead to worse health outcomes, greater risks to the US public, and will contribute to the decline in US life expectancy programs that were eliminated fund positions across the country, in red and blue districts.

There has been no effort in allowing staff to transfer projects, programs, or responsibilities, says one CDC staffer.

These cuts will have immediate impact, experts say. At the Division for HIV Prevention, where the stated mission is to promote health and quality of life by preventing HIV infection and reducing HIV-related illness and death in the United States, at least half of the employees received RIF notices.

Were going to have patients die, says Jade Pagkas-Bather, an infectious disease doctor at the University of Chicago who also specializes in HIV prevention. Unnecessary, preventable death.

Joseph Cherabie, a physician and assistant professor in the division of infectious diseases at Washington University in St. Louis, says that these cuts will have devastating consequences for HIV patients around the country, especially in rural areas: It will be catastrophic.

Cherabie says that states relying heavily on federal funding for public health initiatives, like Missouri, where he works, will be hit especially hard. We're still seeing young people coming in with new HIV diagnoses, sometimes advanced HIV, says Cherabie.

Along with six other states, Missouri has been awarded CDC funding dedicated to lowering HIV infections, which helps pay for medicine like pre-exposure prophylactics (PrEP) for at-risk patients. Cherabie says patients outside of cities heavily rely on these kinds of CDC-funded HIV programs.

Our efforts are largely dependent on these federal grants, he says. We use them to make sure that we are able to distribute HIV testing equipment. We use them to make sure that we can get information and data on how much PrEP is being distributed, how many HIV diagnoses we have, how many HIV tests we're giving out. If we lose that, then we're moving around in the dark.

An email from the CDCs DEHSP center director states that the division is slated to be eliminated in its entirety. The division includes the Asthma and Air Quality Branch, the Climate and Health Activity, the Emerging Environmental Hazards and Health Effects Branch, the Environmental Public Health Tracking Branch, the Lead Poisoning Prevention and Surveillance Branch, and the Water, Food, and Environmental Health Services Branch. All of these branches provide key services, and hundreds of employees received RIFs.

Other divisions within DEHSP include, for example, the CDCs Vessel Sanitation Program, which helps the cruise industry prevent public health issues, inspects cruises, and provides information on outbreaks. Its unclear if the programs work involving cruise inspections, or the lists of outbreaks on cruises, will continue. Similarly, the Lead Poisoning branch that works to eliminate childhood lead poisoning has also been gutted by RIFs. Its unclear how much of its work will be able to continue.

The CDC cuts are part of the Trump administrations plans to remove more than 10,000 Health and Human Services employees. Those sweeping reductions were orchestrated by Brad Smith, a member of Elon Musks so-called Department of Government Efficiency, according to Politico. The agency-wide cuts were originally expected to fall on Friday. In a press release last Thursday, HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that this restructuring, paired with early retirements and deferred resignations, would reduce the agency workforce from 82,000 to 62,000 full-time employees.

Over time, bureaucracies like HHS become wasteful and inefficient even when most of their staff are dedicated and competent civil servants, Kennedy said in a statement announcing the restructuring last week. This overhaul will be a win-win for taxpayers and for those that HHS serves. Thats the entire American public, because our goal is to Make America Healthy Again.

Anu Hazra, another infectious disease specialist at the University of Chicago who also works as a physician at the nonprofit medical clinic Howard Brown Health, says that cuts to CDC funding will severely curb the type of HIV prevention and testing he does, and potentially outright eliminate some of the services offered. Its the only way that the work gets done, he says; he does not believe that other institutions will be able to compensate for the loss of federal funding. The idea that you can just privatize public health, I dont think its a realistic solution.

Hazra says that funding cuts will disproportionately impact people like his patients on the South Side of Chicago, who come from socioeconomically disadvantaged Black communities that either dont have access or have really reduced access to medical services including HIV prevention and treatment.

Several doctors WIRED spoke to were unnerved because President Donald Trumps first administration had championed federal HIV prevention funding initiatives, which aimed to essentially end new HIV infections in the US by 2030, so they did not anticipate this radical change. This work that were doing was thanks to him, Hazra says.

This is not just something that impacts people in the ivory tower. This is not just something that impacts people who are physicians, or scientists, or academics, says Pagkas-Bather. This is coming for you.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/9/9a41fd57.jpg

It's all of HHS.

It's been an awful day. Of course they do this shit on April Fools.

Tom_Joad posted...

Experts say people will die.

Yep, that's the idea.

But she just laughed too weird.

Why arent the Democrats stopping this?!?!?

Not April fools

I know CMS is only expected to lose 300 ( for now) but I'm really hoping it doesn't get worse.

We're ruled by a death cult, and the leader isn't Nergal.

Some of you will die. But that is a sacrifice I am willing to make.

Gotta fund the tax cuts for the billionaires somehow.

Fuck all these bastards that are killing people and destroying vital services.

It doesn't matter to a Maga fool if they lose their entire family, as long as one Democrat gets sick it is all worth it.

The next flu season is going to be a doozy, that is, if America doesn't see an epidemic break out first.

Oh, and food companies can stop complying with food safety regulations... at least with regards to lead.

Nobody will be checking to see if the apple sauce you give your kids is full of it. Same with canned goods... if anyone wants to seal the can with lead, nobody is going to check anymore.

"Unnecessary" and "Preventable" are two words that are going to be worn the fuck out over the coming years of the Trump regime.

Tom_Joad posted...

Experts say people will die.

That's the point. The GOP are a death cult.

Shit like this makes me wish that the money making states (Blue states usually), start withholding federal taxes and reinvest in themselves or funding alternate agencies.

For example a new CDC formed by a coalition of blue states.

I know much easier said than done or maybe even impossible.

I work for a contractor that receives much of its funding through federal grants and contracts. We've already experienced something to the tune of 1000 people laid off already and shit like this will likely lead to more lay off for this company. Unavoidable. I've managed to skirt by the last two rounds of lay offs, but with this still continuing, it's not gonna be long before I'm on the chopping block as well.

I work as a graphic designer and am 39 years old. Once I get laid off, there's really no good future prospects for me. This career is front loaded for the youth. I thought about pivoting to IT, but that field is so saturated that I wouldn't find a job, either. I honestly don't know what I'd do for a career that isn't just retail at that point.

So fucking annoying, all this.

So companies no longer need food standards and pollution is legal

Health standards being dropped

They want everyone to be sick and poor while they absorb any money they can and destroy the land by cutting down all our forests

Idiocracy here we come

The Center for Disease Cpreading

-ZIO- posted...

I work for a contractor that receives much of its funding through federal grants and contracts. We've already experienced something to the tune of 1000 people laid off already and shit like this will likely lead to more lay off for this company. Unavoidable. I've managed to skirt by the last two rounds of lay offs, but with this still continuing, it's not gonna be long before I'm on the chopping block as well.

I work as a graphic designer and am 39 years old. Once I get laid off, there's really no good future prospects for me. This career is front loaded for the youth. I thought about pivoting to IT, but that field is so saturated that I wouldn't find a job, either. I honestly don't know what I'd do for a career that isn't just retail at that point.

So fucking annoying, all this.

Speaking as someone whose in IT right now looking for work, I wouldn't recommend IT. Besides being filled with foreign workers, generally there are a lot of fake job postings. I've seen the same job postings for months, applied every time and keep getting turned down, yet they are "Looking for workers just out of college". Yeah, my ass.

Call the Congress people on any committee that covers health or science and demand that the RIFs be stopped. These people haven't been fired yet. They're on leave or have 60 days for you to intervened. Join in the protests this weekend, on May Day, and on May 3rd.

Show up at town halls. Don't think it's not worth it, as bad as things are, I can tell you they've been scared about making even worse or more immediate cuts due to focused backlash.

Lead in the brain will make more republicans after all

I'm not at CDC, but things are bad. Admin staff were let go so I have no idea what they expect people to do in their absence. Sounds like they let go of the main IT branch too.

I'm trying to hold it together but I'm scared, y'all. This is really bad.

Yes.

I have set Saturday aside to get out and protest at Hands Off.

Even if we get a dem elected in 2028, it going to take 4 years to fix all the departments

I sure do hope those Democrats learned their lesson.

But guys, think of how much money Doge saved. You need to focus on what's important, and stop worrying about silly things like being alive.

LuigiChalmersJr posted...

I'm trying to hold it together but I'm scared, y'all. This is really bad.

*hug* yea im right there with you

It is almost like they are trying to fix global warming with the kingsman movie rich guys idea. Kill most everyone that isnt rich.

Mistere_Man posted...

It is almost like they are trying to fix global warming with the kingsman movie rich guys idea. Kill most everyone that isnt rich.

That's probably in their subconscious mind. After all, the tech bros all have apocalypse bunkers to retreat to. So why should they care if everyone dies?

Tom_Joad posted...

That's probably in their subconscious mind. After all, the tech bros all have apocalypse bunkers to retreat to. So why should they care if everyone dies?

These "masters of the universe" really are fucking brain-dead morons.

What use is all their wealth if all they can do with it is stare at the walls of their bunkers and worry about the loyalty of their hired guns?

Dark_Moon posted...

Even if we get a dem elected in 2028, it going to take 4 years to fix all the departments

More than that unfortunately. Most people in these fields were highly qualified and usually had to go through an extensive interview process.

Unfortunately, white America and those who decided to vote for Trump and third party now see that destruction is easier than rebuilding.

April fools.

Oh wait just reality. Horrible reality.

How will this "Make America healthy again"?

creativerealms posted...

April fools.

Oh wait just reality. Horrible reality.

How will this "Make America healthy again"?

Well, it will quite literally do the opposite.

And also, these cuts aren't done. I expect a lot more throughout the week. Apparently today, FDA lost about 1500 people out of the expected 3500. So... Unfortunately there's a lot more to go.

It's like conservatives want to shrink the population, make people more miserable, and just get off on people dying. These people are psychopaths and...I don't want to get modded both here and in real life.

Pandemics are once in a lifetime right?

creativerealms posted...

April fools.

Oh wait just reality. Horrible reality.

How will this "Make America healthy again"?

If everyone dies from preventable things no one will have to worry about getting sick again.

I feel like this will soon be usable on much, much more than just mass shootings

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/e/e4fe0482.jpg

name_unknown posted...

Pandemics are once in a lifetime right?

I mean, they were... and then people decided that science was bad and vaccines were an affront to their personal freedom to get sick and die of things we had under control.
So...

AceMos posted...

*hug* yea im right there with you

Thanks for this.

I'd get modded for saying what I'd like to.

But the paradox that is conservatism, is morbidly hilarious. A government with FEWER employees somehow costs MORE money to operate.

It's going to take 2 back to back 2 term Democratic presidents to fix America after Trump.

uuuuuughhhh im not ok with this. i worked in the dc part of cdc and wanted to continue because frankly the world really f'd up the pandemic and my "formal" training was containment with one of those military type branches lol. i can still blame gi joe because i liked the toxoviper and airtights look.

People are just gonna keep getting sick, and its gonna be muh freedomz to get others sick and watch them die, long as its not too many deaths who cares. this is what i hate the most, gramma doesnt have to die, you can wash yer hands, wear some particle blocking cloth and still have freedom to be a gun toting dipshit. didnt stop me LOL

I dont like getting real here on the faqx but this is something ive been close to, and do not like the look of whats to come because of this crap.

LuigiChalmersJr posted...

Thanks for this.

we all gotta stick together in our little community here on CE do what we can to keep eachother going

They voted for this.

Get ready for more deadly pandemics in the near future.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/591dc06f.jpg

What a joke of a country