RFK Jr.’s callous purge of public health staffers puts us all at risk

The Department of Health and Human Services, led by anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy,  has kicked off a sweeping round of layoffs, cutting roughly 10,000 employees as part of a so-called reorganization effort, which was announced last week. 

With these cuts—alongside resignations and workers who took President Donald Trump’s buyouts—HHS has now shrunk by nearly a quarter, leaving just 62,000 positions, according to the Associated Press. This marks yet another devastating blow to the federal workforce under Trump: Just last week, the president signed an executive order aiming to revoke the collective bargaining rights of most federal workers.

“We are streamlining HHS to make our agency more efficient and more effective,” Kennedy wrote alongside a video posted to social media, announcing the layoffs last week. “We will eliminate an entire alphabet soup of departments, while preserving their core functions by merging them into a new organization called the Administration for a Healthy America or AHA. This overhaul will improve the health of the entire nation—to Make America Healthy Again.”

But that supposed efficiency comes at a steep cost. Some of the top experts at the Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health—scientists and public health officials responsible for drug approvals, disease prevention, and medical research—received their termination notices on Tuesday morning, according to various reports.

It’s beyond questionable that Kennedy would gut departments designed to protect public safety—but then again, this is exactly what we should expect from a man who is anti-science and steeped in conspiracy theories.

Kennedy has vaguely promised to do “more with less,” but he hasn’t clarified what that means. And the timing couldn’t be worse: A Civiqs poll for Daily Kos in March revealed that voters were already uneasy about slashing funding for medical research. Now, with a deadly measles outbreak spreading, Kennedy has struggled to contain the crisis—yet his solution is to shrink the very agencies responsible for handling it.

It’s especially galling that Kennedy would gut divisions within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cutting resources for public health initiatives, disease prevention, and medical research when the country can least afford it. One report revealed that senior leaders in the agency were among those let go.

But that’s not all. According to NBC News, some of the hardest-hit departments include those focused on HIV prevention and minority health initiatives. Offices responsible for approving new drugs and providing health insurance were also gutted, leaving millions of Americans at risk.

And it’s not just scientists and researchers facing the axe—communications offices were purged as well. The FDA’s entire media affairs office was reportedly wiped out, while nearly all communications staff at the NIH were also dismissed, sources told NBC and the AP.

These drastic cuts are just the beginning of Kennedy’s broader plan to dismantle federal health agencies—a campaign promise he made during his failed presidential run last year. Altogether, HHS is eliminating 2,400 full-time jobs from the CDC and another 1,200 from the NIH.

NBC News reports that some of those who were unceremoniously fired may have their responsibilities shifted to Kennedy’s newly created Administration for a Healthy America. But that’s hardly a silver lining for those now scrambling to pay for their housing and food.

What’s worse, the firings appear to have been carried out with little coordination or foresight. According to Reuters, FDA employees were instructed to present their badges at the entrance. Those who were terminated received a ticket and were sent home on the spot.

Former HHS staffers took to social media in outrage, condemning the mass layoffs and warning that Kennedy’s reckless dismantling of public health agencies will have dire consequences for the country.

“The FDA as we’ve known it is finished,” wrote former FDA Commissioner Robert Calif on LinkedIn. “With most of the leaders with institutional knowledge and a deep understanding of product development and safety no longer employed. I believe that history will see this [as] a huge mistake.”

Democrats, too, are sounding the alarm. On Monday, a group of Senate lawmakers sent Kennedy a letter demanding answers about his haphazard restructuring, calling it a move made with “a complete lack of transparency.” And on Tuesday, a coalition of state attorneys general sued the Trump administration for moving to slash $11 billion in funding for public health initiatives across the nation.

While Kennedy touts his plan as a way to “Make America Healthy Again,” the reality is clear: Gutting agencies that protect public health, regulate life-saving medications, and fight disease will do the exact opposite.