truthseekersjournal
By Milton Kirby | Atlanta, GA | April 2, 2025
On Tuesday, the Trump administration fired thousands of health workers, many of whom worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also known as the CDC. These job cuts are part of a bigger plan to shrink the Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS.
About 2,400 people at the CDC lost their jobs, nearly one in five workers. Across HHS, around 10,000 jobs are being cut. Officials say the total number could reach 20,000 with layoffs and buyouts.
President Trump and billionaire Elon Musk support these cuts. They say the goal is to make the government smaller and faster. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says the system is too big and slow. He wants to move people from several agencies into one new group called the Administration for a Healthy America, or AHA. It’s not clear yet who will be moved into AHA.
But many people are worried. Experts say the cuts could harm the U.S.’s ability to fight disease and handle health emergencies. Some of the people who were fired worked in cancer research, disease control, and drug safety. They were leaders in their fields. Now, they’re gone.
The timing is also concerning. The CDC has a $9.2 billion budget and is already dealing with big problems. That includes rising cases of tuberculosis, bird flu, and a large measles outbreak in West Texas. The Texas outbreak has caused more measles cases than the U.S. had all last year.
Since February, many CDC workers—especially newer and temporary ones—have already been let go. Critics say the agency is now too weak to respond to a large disease outbreak. “The challenges for these individuals to do their jobs on a daily basis must be enormous,” said Jason Schwartz, a health expert at Yale. “The future of CDC is under threat, by any measure.”
One important leader who left earlier was Dr. Leandris Liburd. She is a Black woman who led the CDC’s Office of Health Equity. She worked on issues like women’s health and making sure all communities get fair health care. She started in 2020 and helped address the high number of COVID-19 deaths in Black, Latino, and Native American communities.
Dr. Liburd’s name appeared earlier this year on a “DEI Watchlist.” This list was created by a conservative group called the American Accountability Foundation and named Black and Latino federal workers who support diversity and fairness. Liburd’s photo and title were listed as a “target” on the group’s website.
Many CDC workers found out they were fired when they were locked out of their email. Some bosses had to ask their teams, “Did you get fired?” Others heard the news from the media.
On Tuesday morning, hundreds of workers lined up outside HHS buildings. Some waited more than an hour to find out if they still had jobs. Acting CDC Director Susan Monarez and a few people in her office were not fired—at least for now.
CDC Chief of Staff Matt Buzzelli sent a message to workers, saying he knows this is a hard time. He pointed them to tools like a severance calculator and a guide for laid-off workers. He also reminded them of the employee help program but said wait times are long.
Health leaders outside the CDC are sounding the alarm. Richard Besser, a former CDC leader, said he is very worried. “When there’s a health emergency, you need people who know what to do,” he said. He added that strong leadership is more important than ever in times like this.
Tom Frieden, another former CDC director, called the cuts “a recipe for disaster.” He now leads a group that works to stop heart disease and fight outbreaks. He said ending programs like tobacco control only helps big tobacco companies.
Now, many are asking: Will the U.S. be ready when the next health crisis hits? So far, things don’t look good.
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