Final week, Division of Well being and Human Companies (HHS) secretary and famous anti-vaccine crackpot Robert Kennedy Jr. announced sweeping layoffs as a part of a significant restructuring effort.
Roughly 20,000 of the division’s 82,000 full-time workers ended up on the chopping block. Round 10,000 have been laid off, with the remaining being taking both early retirements or buyouts, in line with the announcement.
However it’s wanting like Kennedy moved too unexpectedly, firing essential staff who even he admits have been really wanted.
“Personnel that ought to not have been reduce have been reduce,” he informed reporters this week, as quoted by CBS News. “We’re reinstating them.”
Bafflingly, he defended the unprofessional screwup.
“And that was at all times the plan,” Kennedy added. “A part of the DOGE, we talked about this from the start, is we’ll do 80 p.c cuts, however 20 p.c of these are going to should be reinstated, as a result of we’ll make errors.”
It is a confounding admission, highlighting the second Trump administration’s “move fast and break things” strategy, and the way little thought is being put into sweeping cuts affecting the HHS and an unlimited variety of different authorities companies.
DOGE has already needed to reinstate key authorities workers on a number of events, together with staff who were working to contain bird flu and USAID efforts to prevent Ebola outbreaks.
Kennedy, a famous determine within the anti-vaccine motion, has confirmed a extremely controversial choose for the job, and is already pouring resources into investigating long-debunked claims linking vaccines and autism.
It is a precarious state of affairs, particularly given the continuing measles outbreak. Because the New York Times reported late final month, ill-informed measles sufferers have been experiencing issues after following Kennedy’s advice to take large amounts of Vitamin A.
As a part of the HHS restructuring efforts, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention’s full Lead Poisoning Prevention and Surveillance Department was laid off, in line with CBS — which, Kennedy argued, was a mistake.
Regardless of backtracking on DOGE’s ill-devised plans, it stays unclear how or when the HHS will reinstate these key figures. CDC officers informed CBS that they hadn’t been knowledgeable of any upcoming plans to take action.
And the results of the mass layoffs are already being felt. The CDC, for example, will not have the ability to proceed its investigation into lead in water “because of the lack of subject material specialists,” officers mentioned, as quoted by CBS.
Regardless of admitting that 20 p.c of the cuts have been a mistake, Kennedy has mentioned that restructuring the HHS may save taxpayers $1.8 billion a year “with out impacting important companies.”
Now that the CDC and the Meals and Drug Administration have been hit arduous, we’ll all discover out whether or not that’ll turn into true.
Extra on Kennedy: Man Who Believes Poppers Cause AIDS Is Planning to Gut America’s HIV Prevention Office
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