US - Reported job lay-offs at CDC, HHS, health related departments - not a political thread - February 14+

[sharon sanders]

This topic does affect FluTrackers in terms of some of the data that we follow (i.e. FluView, various papers, travel notices, H5N1 updates, etc.).

Again - we are not directly affected by any government actions since we are not funded by them.

We are Independent Media.

The CDC disease detectives have sat on this site for many hours a day, for many years. We are one of the sources for them. We are still online and posting as usual no matter what happens at the CDC.

Our information is public and free to everyone. Please view our material as we have not changed our mission statement or any of our long standing policies. We have been through many administrations and we remain the same.


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CDC's "disease detectives" halved as part of DOGE cuts at health agencies


By Alexander Tin

February 14, 2025 / 1:22 PM EST / CBS News

Politics CDC's "disease detectives" halved as part of DOGE cuts at health agencies


By Alexander Tin

February 14, 2025 / 1:22 PM EST / CBS News
Half of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention's Epidemic Intelligence Service officers — a group known as the CDC's "disease detectives" — were among the cuts made Friday by the Trump administration, multiple health officials tell CBS News.

The cuts are among the thousands of probationary workers being let go this week across the federal government as part of efforts to shrink the federal workforce overseen by President Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, task force headed by billionaire Elon Musk.

The CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service or EIS officers are hired in annual classes through a competitive process.

As part of the fellowship, they serve for two years around the CDC or deployed to health departments across the country, often on the front lines of public health responses. Many go on to rise through the ranks at the agency after being selected for the program.

more...https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cdc-dis...nkId=748037293

[sharon sanders]

snip

Senior officials were informed in meetings Friday morning that roughly 5,200 people on probationary employment — recent hires — across agencies including the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will be fired that afternoon, according to sources briefed on the meetings. CDC leadership was told the Atlanta-based agency would lose about 1,300 workers. The numbers at the NIH are not clear, but exceptions are being made for certain probationary employees, according to a memo viewed by STAT.

The workers will be given a month’s paid leave but lose access to work systems by the end of Friday, according to sources.

In addition to the probationary workers, an unspecified number of contract workers at the CDC and other Health and Human Services agencies have been informed over the course of the past week that their jobs had been terminated, including dozens at the Vaccine Research Center housed at NIH. Many jobs at these agencies are done by contract workers.

more....https://www.statnews.com/2025/02/14/...lth-secretary/

[Mary Wilson]

FEBRUARY 14, 2025
By Amy Maxmen

...“Without more information, we are blind,” she said.

Flu has been brutal this season. The CDC estimates at least 24 million illnesses, 310,000 hospitalizations, and 13,000 deaths from the flu since the start of October. At the same time, the bird flu outbreak continues to infect cattle and farmworkers. But CDC analyses that would inform people about these situations are delayed, and the CDC has cut off communication with doctors, researchers, and the World Health Organization, say doctors and public health experts.

“CDC right now is not reporting influenza data through the WHO global platforms, FluNet [and] FluID, that they’ve been providing information [on] for many, many years,” Maria Van Kerkhove, interim director of epidemic and pandemic preparedness at the WHO, said at a Feb. 12 press briefing.

“We are communicating with them,” she added, “but we haven’t heard anything back.” ...

A critical analysis of the seasonal flu selected for distribution through the CDC’s Health Alert Network has stalled, according to people close to the CDC. They asked not to be identified because of fears of retaliation. The network, abbreviated as HAN, is the CDC’s main method of sharing urgent public health information with health officials, doctors, and, sometimes, the public. ...

Without a complete analysis, however, it’s unclear whether this tidal wave of sickness foreshadows a spike in hospitalizations and deaths that hospitals, pharmacies, and schools must prepare for. Specifically, other data could relay how many of the flu-like illnesses are caused by flu viruses — or which flu strain is infecting people. A deeper report might also reveal whether the flu is more severe or contagious than usual.

“I need to know if we are dealing with a more virulent strain or a coinfection with another virus that is making my patients sicker, and what to look for so that I know if my patients are in danger,” Stokes said. “Delays in data create dangerous situations on the front line.”

Although the CDC’s flu dashboard shows a surge of influenza, it doesn’t include all data needed to interpret the situation. Nor does it offer the tailored advice found in HAN alerts that tells health care workers how to protect patients and the public. ...

Corresponding CDC documents summarizing the cat study and another as-yet unpublished bird flu analysis said the reports were scheduled to be published Jan. 23. These were reviewed by KFF Health News. The briefing on cats advises dairy farmworkers to “remove clothing and footwear, and rinse off any animal biproduct residue before entering the household to protect others in the household, including potentially indoor-only cats.” ...

https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/cdc-data-analyses-missing-mmwr-bird-flu-seasonal-influenza/

[Mary Wilson]

Feb. 18, 2025, 4:51 PM CST / Updated Feb. 18, 2025, 5:31 PM CST
By Allan Smith, Melanie Zanona and Laura Strickler

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Tuesday that, over the weekend, it accidentally fired "several" agency employees who are working on the federal government's response to the H5N1 avian flu outbreak.

The agency said it is now trying to quickly reverse the firings. ...

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/doge/usda-accidentally-fired-officials-bird-flu-rehire-rcna192716

[Mary Wilson]

20 hours ago
Brandon Drenon
BBC News

The US government is trying to rehire nuclear safety employees it had fired on Thursday, after concerns grew that their dismissal could jeopardise national security, US media reported.

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) workers were among hundreds of employees in the energy department who received termination letters.

The department is responsible for designing, building and overseeing the US nuclear weapons stockpile.

... A memo sent to NNSA employees on Friday and obtained by NBC News read: "The termination letters for some NNSA probationary employees are being rescinded, but we do not have a good way to get in touch with those personnel." ...

Last week, nearly 10,000 federal workers were let go across several agencies, according to multiple US outlets.

That figure was in addition to the estimated 75,000 workers who have accepted an offer from the White House to leave voluntarily in the autumn. ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g3nrx1dq5o

[Mary Wilson]

February 21, 2025
PLOS
Scholarly publishing

Since its founding over twenty five years ago PLOS has been dedicated to advancing open science, ensuring that knowledge is accessible to all, for the benefit of all. We believe that for science to maximally benefit society and inform policy, its core principles—integrity, transparency, inclusivity, and collaboration—must be upheld. These same principles are the foundation of our mission and guide our unwavering commitment to champion science that is independent, rigorous, and open.

We are deeply concerned about a range of recent US Executive Orders that collectively have the potential to dismantle the US scientific enterprise as it has existed for the past 70 years. We are already seeing the impact of these disruptions and censorship efforts within our communities. Any attempts to restrict knowledge creation or censor its dissemination—whether through limiting research topics, mandating or restricting specific language, or removing scientifically and medically valuable data from government websites—undermine the core principles of scientific inquiry and obstruct progress. And they stand in direct conflict with our core values, our mission and our editorial policies. ...

https://theplosblog.plos.org/2025/02/plos-statement-on-recent-us-executive-orders-and-scientific-integrity/

[Mary Wilson]

February 20, 2025

doi:10.1001/jama.2025.2405

Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, PhD, MD, MAS¹; Robert O. Bonow, MD, MS²; Neil M. Bressler, MD³; et al

In the first month of the new administration responsible for leading the US, the executive branch has issued a flurry of orders, including ones associated with the dismissal or resignation of tens of thousands of federal employees. Many of these have substantial consequences for science, medicine, and public health. Amidst the dizzying array of actions, it is difficult to know where to focus and how best to respond.^1,2 However, the silencing of science and health-related communications through suppression or erasure of information, and the corresponding silence by many in the fields of biomedicine and public health, deserve special consideration.

Multiple infectious threats remain active across the globe, but the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been prohibited from communicating with other public health agencies, such as the World Health Organization, to coordinate a response and from advising the public about the nature of these threats and how to best take protective action.³ US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) websites that contain health surveillance data, details on enrollment in clinical trials, and other critical information to guide clinical decision-making have been taken down or expunged. Although a number have been ordered to return to service, some of these sites bear an ideological disclaimer that is unrelated to health. ...

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2830748

[sharon sanders]

Apparently there is a lot of reorganization that is going on in the federal health and related agencies. (CDC.HHS. BARDA, ASPR, FDA....)

All we can offer here is to tell you to rely on your local medical practitioner, local health department, & state health department.

We still have cohesive local and state public health structures. Use them.

A couple of weeks ago we asked everyone to be sure to have a medical practitioner contact available. It can be a medical clinic or public health clinic.

You are not alone. Also, there is the WHO, PAHO, ECDC, Africa CDC, among other health agencies.

Take care of you.

[sharon sanders]

A list of federal grant cancellations, including state health departments. NOT VERIFIED by FluTrackers but believed to be true: https://dhoconno.github.io/reporter/...ed_grants.html

[sharon sanders]

The above list compiled by:

Dave O'Connor, Ph.D.
Position title:UW Medical Foundation Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

https://dho.pathology.wisc.edu/staff/dho/

[Pathfinder]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 27, 2025
Contact: HHS Press Office

202-690-6343
Submit a Request for Comment, links to an external website, opens in a new tab

HHS Announces Transformation to Make America Healthy Again

Washington, D.C. — March 27, 2025 — Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a dramatic restructuring in accordance with President Trump's Executive Order, “Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Workforce Optimization Initiative.”

The restructuring will address this and serve multiple goals without impacting critical services. First, it will save taxpayers $1.8 billion per year through a reduction in workforce of about 10,000 full-time employees who are part of this most recent transformation. When combined with HHS’ other efforts, including early retirement and Fork in the Road, the restructuring results in a total downsizing from 82,000 to 62,000 full-time employees.

Secondly, it will streamline the functions of the Department. Currently, the 28 divisions of the HHS contain many redundant units. The restructuring plan will consolidate them into 15 new divisions, including a new Administration for a Healthy America, or AHA, and will centralize core functions such as Human Resources, Information Technology, Procurement, External Affairs, and Policy. Regional offices will be reduced from 10 to 5.

Third, the overhaul will implement the new HHS priority of ending America’s epidemic of chronic illness by focusing on safe, wholesome food, clean water, and the elimination of environmental toxins. These priorities will be reflected in the reorganization of HHS.

Finally, the restructuring will improve Americans’ experience with HHS by making the agency more responsive and efficient, while ensuring that Medicare, Medicaid, and other essential health services remain intact.

“We aren't just reducing bureaucratic sprawl. We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said. “This Department will do more – a lot more – at a lower cost to the taxpayer.”

The specific contents of the restructuring plan that have been announced so far are as follows:

• Creation of the Administration for a Healthy America (AHA), which will combine multiple agencies — the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) — into a new, unified entity. This centralization will improve coordination of health resources for low-income Americans and will focus on areas including, Primary Care, Maternal and Child Health, Mental Health, Environmental Health, HIV/AIDS, and Workforce development. Transferring SAMHSA to AHA will increase operational efficiency and assure programs are carried out because it will break down artificial divisions between similar programs.
• Strengthening the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), responsible for national disaster and public health emergency response, will transfer to the CDC, reinforcing its core mission to protect Americans from health threats.
• New Assistant Secretary for Enforcement: HHS will create a new Assistant Secretary for Enforcement to oversee the Departmental Appeals Board (DAB), Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals (OMHA), and Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to combat waste, fraud, and abuse in federal health programs.
• Research and Evaluation for Health Policy: HHS will merge the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to create the Office of Strategy to enhance research that informs the Secretary’s policies and improves the effectiveness of federal health programs.
• Reorganization of the Administration for Community Living (ACL): Critical programs that support older adults and people with disabilities will be integrated into other HHS agencies, including the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), ASPE, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). This reorganization will not impact Medicare and Medicaid services.

“Over time, bureaucracies like HHS become wasteful and inefficient even when most of their staff are dedicated and competent civil servants,” Secretary Kennedy said. “This overhaul will be a win-win for taxpayers and for those that HHS serves. That’s the entire American public, because our goal is to Make America Healthy Again.”

For more detailed information, please visit our fact sheet.
###

https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/hhs-restructuring-doge.html

[sharon sanders]

HHS starts layoffs of thousands of workers across its agencies

April 1, 2025

https://www.statnews.com/2025/04/01/hhs-layoffs-start-under-rfk-jr-trump-administration/