The American public health system has long been under tension, thwarted by the drop in financing as well as by employees. And therefore the public health departments of states and premises across the country – responsible for monitoring and responding to epidemics of diseases that threaten to abandon the masses – relied on the workers of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help.
In February, the Trump administration suddenly dismissed many of them, a decision which, according to local officials and the State, would undermine the continuous effort of the country to control the spread of infectious diseases.
Some examples: Licensed CDC employees had helped prevent and respond to epidemics such as dengue and flu. They have worked with local officials to quickly test viruses – including oropouche, a disease that has no effective vaccine or treatment – and ensure that tests in public health laboratories comply with federal regulations. Others have monitored the potential cases of tuberculosis or provided adolescent health education to prevent sexually transmitted infections.
The Ministry of Efficiency of the Trump Administration Government, led by billionaire Elon Musk, is trying to reduce the labor market through the Ministry of Health and Social Services and other federal agencies. SWIFT staff discounts have targeted probationary employees, many of whom have hired in the past two years, which are lacking in public service protection against dismissals.
My colleague Noam N. Levey reported this week On layoffs in a division of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services – The Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Monitoring – which could hinder the application of a law to prevent surprise medical bills that Trump himself signed during his first mandate.
One of the CDC trainees dropped Gaël Cruanes, who worked in the New York mental health and mental hygiene department to detect cases of tuberculosis. Cruanas, which described the dismissals of “unreasonable”, contacted immigrants and refugees newly arrived potentially at risk of spreading tuberculosis in the hope of bringing them into the city clinics for screening. “It is purely for public security at the end of the day,” said Cruane.
The layoffs were communicated in mid-February in opinions with an identical language alleging that workers had displayed poor performance and that their skills did not meet the current needs of the ministry. Several people interviewed by Kff Health News have challenged this characterization.
After the publication of our reports, CDC workers were dismissed in the training programs of March 4 that their layoffs were canceled and that they should start working on March 5, according to the e-mails consulted by KFF Health News. “We apologize for any disturbance that this could have caused,” said the emails, not signed and sent from an internal e-mail address of the CDC. The CDC did not respond to requests for comments.
The reversal intervened less than a week after a federal judge ruled that the generalized layoffs of the Trump administration of probation employees were probably illegal. But there is still uncertainty. Although some workers have been rehired, federal agencies still establish plans for large -scale layoffs, a decision that could include a much wider band of workers.
We would like to speak with the current and former staff of the Ministry of Health and Social Services or its component agencies who believe that the public should understand the impact of what is happening in the Federal Bureaucracy of Health. Please send a KFF Health News message on signal to (415) 519-8778 or Contact here.
