March 30, 2025 (EIRNS)—U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced 10,000 firings at the Department of HHS, particularly targeting development of vaccines for infectious diseases, and fundamental scientific research. The cuts include 2,400 people at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and 1,200 people at the National Institutes of Health, which is a primary funder of disease research across the United States. If continued, as currently planned, cuts such as these will dismantle the world-class medical and health system that the United States has built over the past 250 years.
The 10,000 in HHS job cuts announced March 27 will come on top of 10,000 recent “voluntary departures”—in which HHS staff were told to either accept a buyout or face the prospect of being fired—bringing the total HHS labor force slashing to 20,000, which is approximately one-quarter of the agency’s 82,000 workforce. Kennedy announced March 27, “This overhaul will be a win-win for taxpayers and for those that HHS serves.”
The cuts include:
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The cut of 2,400 workers will gouge the CDC, whose function is to provide information, recommendations, and resources for prevention and control of the pathogens that cause measles, mumps, and rubella (whooping cough), the trivalent vaccine known as MMR; avian, swine and pandemic flu; West Nile virus; HIV/AIDS; viral hepatitis; COVID-19; pneumonia; tuberculosis; and so forth. Kennedy says that his goal is to “Make America Healthy Again.” How cutting the research and prevention of these diseases would make America “healthy again” is inconceivable.
• National Institutes of Health. The NIH has a $48 billion annual budget, 94% of which funds biomedical research at universities, hospitals, research institutions, and pharmaceutical companies. This is the leading federal source for fundamental medical research in the nation. Nate Brought, the recently departed director of NIH’s Executive Directorate asserted, “The only way to cut that high of a percentage of our staff ... is to drastically scale back what NIH does across the board,” reported Reuters.
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration staff was cut by 3,500 workers. The FDA is responsible for protecting public health by ensuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human vaccines and drugs, biological products, medical devices, and the nation’s food supply.