Trump administration fires thousands at HHS

The Department of Health and Human Services officials at a National Institutes of Health department meeting Friday said that they expected most of HHS' approximately 5,200 probationary employees to be notified that their positions will be terminated, according to an audio recording obtained by the Associated Press.

WHY IT MATTERS

Nearly 1,300 probationary employees have been terminated at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and those being fired included all 50 first-year officers in the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service, according to two agency employees who spoke anonymously with the news service about the probationary job cuts.

They are sent to different states and countries as primary investigators of outbreaks and emerging health dangers.

"The country is less safe," Dr. Anne Schuchat, a former CDC official and alumna of the EIS program, told CBS News in a story focused on the agency's disease detectives.

"These are the deployable assets critical for investigating new threats, from anthrax to Zika."

Affected probationary HHS employees across multiple health agencies received similar letters Saturday evening informing them they will be terminated, according to a separate CBS News article about the weekend firings.

An effective date of March 14 was stated in a letter included with the story.

Jeffrey Anoka, the acting HHS head of human resources, signed the partial copy of the letter, which was sent amid a larger Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force effort led by billionaire Elon Musk to cut the federal government's probationary workers.

The total number of HHS positions eliminated is currently unclear, with no information at press time appearing on the agency's website.

Additional DOGE firings appear to focus on U.S. Food and Drug Administration employees in the agency's centers for food, medical devices and tobacco products, Newsweek reported Sunday.

It is unclear whether FDA employees who review drugs were exempted from the layoffs, according to the story.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid have also endured workforce cuts, according to a report from Bloomberg Sunday, which said CMS employees working on Affordable Care Act exchanges were affected.

CMS has reduced funding for the ACA Navigator Program by $10 million.

The Administration for Children and Families workforce, which runs programs like Head Start, has also been affected.

THE LARGER TREND

The health sector industry's reaction last week on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s appointment as secretary of the HHS has been mixed, and there's been little Information coming from HHS and its agencies since the agency-wide gag order was issued last month by Dr. Dorothy Fink, the former HHS acting secretary.