Hundreds of federal workers from various agencies linked to the Department of Health and Human Services of the United States (HHS), from high -direction positions to doctors, began receiving dismissal notifications on Tuesday, US media reported.
The threat of President Donald Trump begins to be fulfilled, which It aims to cut up to 10,000 jobs.
The measure is part of the restructuring policy of the Department of Health that the person responsible for this portfolio, Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., announced last week.
Some employees They found out on Tuesday their dismissal when they arrived at work and verify that their accreditations to pass the usual security controls had been deactivated.
Last Friday, part of the breakdown of the 10,000 jobs that are intended to be destroyed was leaked: 3,500 positions in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); 2,400 in the centers for disease control and prevention (CDC); 1,200 jobs in National Health Institutes (NIH); and 300 in the service centers for Medicare and Medicaid medical plans.
In fact, the officials responsible for the CDC were then told that Its offices closed.
The dismissals are also framed in a context erosion of the rights of federal workers, after last Thursday US President Donald Trump sign an executive order that ends collective bargaining with agencies unions with national security missions such as CDC themselves.
On Tuesday’s notices ended several days of anxiety for many employees, some of whom said they spent the weekend consumed with the concern of whether they still had work.
A source cited by NBC News confirmed that the notices were not sent as planned on Friday so that “all data could be verified three times during the weekend.”
The divisions most affected by employment cuts include responsible for addressing issues such as HIV, improving minority health and preventing injuries, such as armed violence.
The entire team of the FDA Media Office was fired, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The cuts also affected the divisions that supervise the approval of new medications, provide health insurance and respond to outbreaks of infectious diseases.
The dismissals are expected to reduce the HHS to 62,000 positions, eliminating almost a quarter of their staff through these 10,000 layoff Another 10,000 workers who would have already accepted early retirement offers and voluntary separation.
Which means a decrease of approximately one third of the total workforce with respect to the approximately 92,620 employees that the department had in September 2024.
In addition to layoffs in federal health agencies, cuts are beginning to implement cuts in state and local health departments as a result of an HHS measure last week to withdraw more than 11,000 million dollars in funds related to the fight against COVID-19.