The dismissal of 10,000 workers begins in the US Department of Health

The layoffs of up to 10,000 workers in the main health agencies of the United States began on Tuesday, within the framework of a large restructuring of the federal government workforce ordered by President Donald Trump.

AFP

To the layoffs that began on Tuesday, we must add another cut of 10,000 employees in the sector within the framework of the Voluntary and early retirement program undertaken by Trump and his right hand, Elon Musk.

Thus, the staff of the Department of Health and its agencies will go from 82,000 to 62,000, according to a government statement issued last week.

The estimated savings will be $ 1.8 billion annually, a drop in the sea of ​​the Budget of the Department of Health and Human Services, which amounts to 1.8 billion dollars.

The Secretary of Health, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., declared last week that the dismissals are part of a major reform in his department, with the aim of re -enforcement efforts towards the prevention of chronic diseases.

It is a «difficult moment for all of us (…) our hearts are with those who have lost their jobs,» said Kennedy.

The dismissals affect the Department of Health and the federal agencies responsible for approveing ​​new medicines (FDA), respond to epidemics (CDC) or conduct medical research (NIH).

«But the reality is clear: what we have been doing has not been to work,» Kennedy said when complaining that «Americans are increasingly sick every year» despite an increase in spending on federal agencies that execute public health policies in the country.

According to photos and testimonies published on social networks, employees learned of their early dismissal on Tuesday by email or when their access cards stopped working.

According to US media, senior positions of these agencies such as Jeanne Marrazzo, who had replaced Anthony Fauci – key man during the pandemic – in charge of one of the NIH branches, they have been offered to relocate themselves in isolated places of Alaska or Oklahoma.

«The FDA, as we knew it, is over, since most leaders with institutional knowledge and a deep understanding of the development and safety of products are no longer employed,» said Robert Califf, former agency commissioner during the administrations of Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

The measure occurs in the middle of the worst measles outbreak in years in the United States and in the face of growing fears that avian flu can cause the next human pandemic.

Kennedy has alarmed health experts with their rhetoric that minimizes the importance of vaccines, and even suggested that avian flu freely extends between corral birds in the United States.