The analysis is lacking. It does not include hundreds or thousands of workers who received layoff notifications but remained on administrative leave.
Health agencies are not spared. Several key departments lost more than one in five workers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is responsible for public health, lost 15% of its staff. National Institutes of Health, 16%, is the world’s largest funder of biomedical research. And the Food and Drug Administration ensures the safety of most of what’s on people’s bodies, from baby formula to cancer drugs to hip implants.
Thousands of these employees were fired or cut contracts, while some employees shopped or left earlier than expected. ProPublica has lost the senior leader behind some of the biggest health initiatives of the modern era, like the rapid rollout of Covid-19 vaccines, and is experiencing epic proportional brain drains, Propublica has discovered.
Many of the cuts contradict what the administration said about its priorities.
The secretary questioned the vaccine’s safety and pushed out the scores of regulators who work to make the vaccine safe. And he declared a new era in the fight against chronic illness, but he destroyed the center dedicated to that very goal.
Department leaders and staff told Propoblica that the cuts will lead the agency to ignore duties. Federal researchers have put in fewer clinical trials and research, regulators have conducted fewer in-laws testing at egg farms and foreign drug factories, and said public health experts will not be prepared to fight the departure of the deadly virus. With the exit and retirement packages pending, many former and current workers will only speak anonymously out of fear of retaliation.
HHS did not dispute the results of Propublica’s analysis and did not directly respond to questions about the results of the cuts from thousands of scientists, public health experts and safety inspectors. HHS also did not respond to questions about why they didn’t share data on employee reductions. A department spokesperson said the idea that Kennedy is weakening public health was “fraud.”
“Yes, we made the cut – for a bloated bureaucrat who has been delayed for a long time due to accountability,” the spokesperson said in an email. “At the same time, we are working to make measurable impacts, rebuild public trust and redirect resources to science that will help us to make America healthy again.”
Former health secretary Xavier Becerra, who served under President Joseph Biden until the beginning of this year, was called Cut Reckless.
“Public health is not a luxury. It’s a central function of government,” he said. “This way, we can be dangerously exposed. It takes years to build a specialized workforce with the technical knowledge and public trust that these roles require. Once you lose it, it’s not easy to go back.”
