Trump administration lays off dozens of disease detectives and scientists

Dozens of employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — including “disease detectives,” high-ranking scientists and the entire Washington office — were notified late Friday that they were losing their jobs as part of the Trump administration’s latest round of federal layoffs, reported The New York Times.

As of Friday, the number of C.D.C. employees impacted remained unclear. The agency, however, faced another setback following widespread resignations, a shooting at its Atlanta headquarters in August, and the dismissal of its director under pressure from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

As per NYT, the layoff notices landed in the email inboxes of C.D.C. employees shortly before 9 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, notifying employees that their duties had been deemed unnecessary or “virtually identical” to those being performed elsewhere in the agency. Scientists, including leaders, in offices addressing respiratory diseases, chronic diseases, injury prevention and global health were among those affected.

"The staff of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the journal that reports on health trends and emerging infectious threats, was also laid off. The publication’s storied history includes a June 1981 report that five previously healthy gay men were treated for an unusual pneumonia — the first hint of the AIDS epidemic."

Roughly 70 Epidemic Intelligence Service officers — the so-called “disease detectives” who respond to outbreaks around the globe — received layoff notices, said NYT, quoting a person familiar with them. The service was spared during an earlier round of layoffs in February.

The C.D.C. layoffs are part of broader federal government cuts aimed at fulfilling President Trump’s pledge to use the shutdown to reduce government size. For the nation’s public health agency, long a focus of Kennedy’s scrutiny, these layoffs represent the latest in a year marked by turmoil.