Numbers are still sketchy, but reports from Friday indicate that more than 4,000 federal workers overall were initially targeted for layoffs. The Trump administration linked the firings to the ongoing government shutdown, which legal experts have suggested is illegal. Unions representing federal workers have already filed a lawsuit challenging the move. Of the reported 4,000 terminations, about 1,100 to 1,200 were among employees in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
In November 2022, the WHO decided to change the name. The United Nations health agency noted that it had received reports from individuals and countries about the "racist and stigmatizing language online, in other settings, and in some communities." The WHO decided to switch to the name "mpox" with a one-year grace period.
I resigned because CDC leaders were reduced to rubber stamps, supporting policies not based in science, and putting American lives at risk. Secretary Kennedy censored CDC's science, politicized its processes, and stripped leaders of independence. I could not and in good conscience, remain under those conditions,
"He said that the childhood vaccine schedule would be changing starting in September and I needed to be on board with it," Monarez told the Senate's health committee during testimony about the events leading up to her firing in August. "He did say that he had spoken to the president, he spoke to the president every day about changing the childhood vaccine schedule," she added.
While sitting at his desktop, Tapper searched the CDC website for the word abortion under the CDC's Ten Great Public Health Advancements. And you'll see, none of them include the word abortion,' he said. There's another one, also, just to be fair, Tapper continued. Here's another Ten Great Public Health Achievements,' United States, a different one. When Tapper typed in abortion, the search came up zero out of zero.
When CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda. For that, she has been targeted, lawyers Mark Zaid and Abbe David Lowell wrote in a statement. This is not about one official. It is about the systematic dismantling of public health institutions, the silencing of experts, and the dangerous politicization of science.
The budgetary gap slows the progress of a promising technology that proved effective during the Covid pandemic and is the great hope for quickly halting other similar public health threats.
The tragedy was not random and it compounds months of mistreatment, neglect, and vilification that CDC staff have endured. The deliberate targeting of CDC through this violent act is deeply disturbing, completely unacceptable, and an attack on every public servant.
