Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. introduced on Thursday the firing of 10,000 federal well being staff, together with dramatic cuts to companies that hold People secure from illness and doable future pandemics.
The vaccine skeptic and ally of President Trump mentioned the workforce of the Division of Well being and Human Providers will probably be slashed from 82,000 to 62,000 after hundreds of different officers already accepted buyouts in a push engineered by billionaire Elon Musk.
RFK mentioned the layoffs would save about $1.8 billion in annual spending.
“We aren’t just reducing bureaucratic sprawl. We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic,” Kennedy mentioned.
A longtime critic of the companies he now leads, Kennedy had vowed to make deep cuts in well being companies that he says are corrupt or within the pockets of Massive Pharma and meals processing corporations.
The Well being and Human Providers Division has been liable for monitoring infectious ailments, inspecting meals and hospitals and overseeing medical insurance packages for almost half the nation.
Regardless of the large shake-up, the DHHS can even create a brand new division known as the “administration for a healthy America,” an obvious nod to Kennedy’s Make America Wholesome Once more slogan.
Trump and Musk, the latter of whom oversees the huge austerity push by way of the so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity, are gutting whole companies as a part of an effort to shrink the federal paperwork.
A lot of the deliberate cuts will come from the nation’s public well being companies.
The Meals and Drug Administration, liable for setting requirements for People’ meals and medicines, will shed 3,500 staff, whereas the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, which tracks infectious illness outbreaks, will reduce 2,400 positions.
In the meantime, the Nationwide Institutes for Well being, the world’s main public well being analysis company, will lose 1,200 folks. The Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Providers, which oversees well being protection for older and poor People, will shed 300 jobs.
Officers insisted that not one of the cuts will put the general public at risk or increase the danger of illness or new pandemics.
Kennedy has been a fierce critic of vaccines for many years and has earned profitable commissions by steering plaintiffs to legislation companies suing vaccine-makers that he now regulates.
He has downplayed a lethal measles outbreak in west Texas, which docs say was brought on by low vaccination charges, and falsely blamed poor dietary practices.
Initially Revealed: March 27, 2025 at 3:26 PM EDT
