US federal job cuts reach the FDA, CDC, say reports

Recently hired employees of the FDA and CDC look set to be the latest federal employees to be affected by the sweeping job cuts implemented by the Trump administration on agencies overseen by the Health and Human Services (HHS) department.

The probationary employees – those hired within the last two years – were sent notices over the weekend indicating that their jobs were being terminated, according to media reports in the US.

The Associated Press said FDA staffers had suggested the cuts were mainly affecting FDA divisions overseeing food, medical devices, and tobacco products. There is as yet no clear idea how many workers would be culled at the agency, which currently employs around 20,000 people, or whether the drug and biologics regulation divisions would also be affected.

AP also cited a contact at the CDC who suggested that 1,300 positions at the agency – around a tenth of its total workforce – were being cut, including the entire incoming 50-strong class of the elite Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS), a two-year post-doctoral training programme providing the field officers needed to identify and respond to disease outbreaks both in the US and overseas.

A Forbes report indicated that the letters read: "You are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge and skills do not fit the agency's current needs."

The purge follows similar actions at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and humanitarian aid agency USAID, and also comes after newly-appointed HHS Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr had promised that workers would not have to worry about their jobs if they have been "involved in good science."

However, Kennedy also said: "If you're in there working for the pharmaceutical industry, then I'd say you should move out and work for the pharmaceutical industry." He is a longstanding critic of the pharma industry and has made millions of dollars in referral fees in lawsuits against drugmakers.

The Trump administration has also dramatically reduced the size of grants provided by the NIH for medical research – a move that has been blocked temporarily in 22 states by a judge – and all but eliminated humanitarian programmes operated by USAID.

According to AP, the objective is to fire 5,200 probationary employees across all the agencies that come directly under the HHS, including the Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Around half of the FDA's $6.9 billion budget is provided by fees paid by industry, so the impact of the job cuts on government spending is hard to gauge.