On February 18, 2025, the new HHS Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., talked about working with “radical transparency.” Yet, he failed to address the more than 5,000 job cuts in his new department, ostensibly performed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is not an actual department in the government, but an advisory body with almost unlimited power, along with unknown oversight and legal status. So, Kennedy’s assertion that “Both science and democracy flourish from the free and unimpeded flow of information,” rings hollow!
A few days earlier, President Trump established the President’s Make America Healthy Again Commission. But in the first four weeks since he assumed office, in addition to withdrawing from the World Health Organization and freezing funding for a multitude of public health programs, more than 200,000 federal workers have been fired, while another 75,000 of them have accepted buyouts. The majority of those fired were probationary employees, mostly recent hires, or in some cases, long-serving government employees who had recently changed roles.
- 1,300 employees fired from the CDC or about 10% of its workforce
- All 50 first-year Epidemic Intelligence Service officers
- 1,165 employees fired from the NIH or about 6% of its workforce
Notified of their firings on Friday, February the 14th, during what has been described as a Valentine’s Day massacre, many employees had the added cruelty of learning from impersonal emails or letters, that they were being fired for poor performance, despite not having had any such prior notice. At the FDA, fired employees worked in research as well as in regulatory positions. These firings will significantly inhibit the FDA's ability to fulfill its mission, "To protect and promote public health…”
Moreover, across the federal government these firings can only be seen as a destructive act. At HHS especially, they are clearly not in the best interests of America’s health. Thus, the American College of Preventive Medicine calls on the Trump Administration to put a pause on any future contemplated mass firings of public health and other health professionals at the CDC, FDA, NIH and other health agencies, and to reverse the current mass firings at HHS.
And so for the second time in two months I conclude my President’s Letter by stating that ACPM and its membership stands ready to collaborate with like-minded partners across various sectors, to mitigate the challenges posed by this recent decision, only this time it is mass firings rather than withdrawing from the WHO. Moreover, this letter is another clarion call to ACPM’s membership, to work together with the Board, participating in our national Town Hall meetings, engaging through our various Committees, and with the ACPM staff, to connect with your elected officials to encourage the Trump Administration to reverse these mass firings, and rather than curtail the public health workforce, seek to enhance it if they have any hope of achieving their stated goal of Making America Healthy Again!
Mirza I. Rahman, MD, MPH, FAAFP, FACPM
President