The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found itself at the heart of a public health storm this October, after hundreds of its employees received abrupt layoff notices—only to have many of those firings hastily rescinded days later. The chaos, which erupted just before the three-day holiday weekend leading up to October 14, 2025, has left the nation’s premier health agency—and the broader Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)—reeling amid a contentious government shutdown and a wave of politically charged restructuring.
According to The Independent, more than 1,000 CDC staffers were initially sent “reduction in force” memos, as the White House leveraged the ongoing shutdown to initiate a government-wide purge of what it labeled “Democrat-oriented” federal workers. HHS, which houses the CDC, saw as many as 1,200 employees fired, including vital “disease detectives,” outbreak forecasters, and scientists tracking emerging infectious diseases. But the situation soon grew even more convoluted: over half of the layoff notices were rescinded after being sent “in error,” according to the unions representing federal workers. The CDC’s entire Washington, D.C. office, however, was emptied out and will not be rehired.
The American Federation of Government Employees Local 2883, representing CDC employees in Atlanta, confirmed to the Associated Press that more than 1,300 CDC employees had received reduction-in-force notices on Friday, October 10. By Monday, approximately 700 had been told they were still employed, while about 600 CDC workers remained fired as the shutdown dragged on. The union described the episode as a “politically-motivated stunt” and called for judicial intervention to halt what they deemed “illegal” firings.
The layoffs extended far beyond the CDC. Agencies such as the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) were also affected, as reported by the AP. Within SAMHSA, dozens of employees were let go from key areas, including the Office of Communications and the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS). One employee told the AP that in CMHS—one of two branches overseeing millions in grants for community health clinics—most staff were terminated. Dakota Jablon, a public health analyst and former SAMHSA employee, warned that the loss of experienced staff would have “devastating ripple effects across the behavioral health field,” adding, “Even if the grants continue, the loss of experienced staff means those who remain will be stretched far too thin, often outside their areas of expertise.”
The confusion and scale of the layoffs left many questioning the administration’s priorities and processes. Dr. Anne Schuchat, former principal deputy director of the CDC, told the AP she had been in touch with Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officers—often called “disease detectives”—who were among those fired and then reinstated. “These are people who go into really scary places,” Schuchat said. “Usually you think it’s nature that’s going to be giving you a hard time, the viruses, not the government.”
Defend Public Health, a coalition of public health workers, issued a stark warning: “Mass firings and confusion within the agency threaten the health of everyone in the U.S. and will lead to needless, preventable deaths.” Gregg Gonsalves, a spokesperson for the group, was blunt: “Did they really not know they were firing the people tracking Ebola? Did they not care enough to find out who they were firing and what they did before sending termination letters? The carelessness and callousness with which this administration handles life and death matters is unbelievable.”
The chaos comes on the heels of a tumultuous ten months at the CDC under President Donald Trump’s administration and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Six weeks prior, top CDC officials resigned en masse after the director was forced out—a move that public health experts say further destabilized the agency. Since his appointment, Kennedy has overseen mass layoffs, slashed research funding, and fired all members of a 17-person CDC vaccine advisory panel. He has also pushed out former director Susan Monarez, who had reportedly refused to endorse Kennedy’s controversial vaccine agenda. Several other top officials left in the wake of her exit.
Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic and vocal critic of mainstream medical science, has defended his actions as necessary reforms. In testimony to the Senate Finance Committee last month, he declared, “It is imperative that we remove officials with conflicts of interest and catastrophically bad judgment, and political agendas. We need unbiased, politics-free, transparent, evidence-based science in the public interest. Those are the guiding principles behind the changes at the CDC, and that is what you can expect all across our agency for the next three years.”
But unions and public health advocates argue the cuts are reckless and politically motivated. Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, stated, “It is disgraceful that the Trump administration has used the government shutdown as an excuse to illegally fire thousands of workers who provide critical services to communities across the country.” Yolanda Jacobs, AFGE Local 2883 president, echoed those sentiments: “These reckless actions are disrupting and destroying the lives of everyday working people, who are constantly being used as bargaining chips.”
HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon told the AP that laid off employees were deemed nonessential and that the agency was working to “close wasteful and duplicative entities, including those that are at odds with the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda.” Nixon declined to specify which agencies were hit hardest or the exact number of staff affected. However, court documents cited by the AP confirmed about 1,100 to 1,200 of HHS’s nearly 80,000 staffers received dismissal notices.
The current wave of layoffs follows an earlier round of cuts just six months prior, which saw thousands of HHS researchers, scientists, doctors, and senior leaders either laid off, retired, or separated voluntarily. HHS staffing dropped by more than 2,000 employees since the beginning of the year. The layoffs are part of Kennedy’s sweeping plan to consolidate agencies overseeing billions in addiction services and community health funds under a new entity, the Administration for a Healthy America—a plan delayed by legislative pushback and ongoing controversy.
For some, the chaos has become routine. Athalia Christie, currently managing the CDC’s response to measles outbreaks, was mistakenly fired twice this year. Demetre Daskalakis, former director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, described the atmosphere at CDC as “like living with an abusive partner that attacks and then takes back some of the abuse. That doesn’t make the partner less abusive. ... CDC damage is done. Rescinded firings or not. U.S. health security is compromised.”
As the government shutdown stretches into its third week, thousands of federal health workers remain furloughed, and the fate of those targeted for layoffs remains uncertain. With both Democratic and Republican lawmakers locked in a budget impasse, the future of the country’s public health infrastructure hangs in the balance. The consequences of these firings—intentional or not—are likely to be felt far beyond the walls of the CDC, touching every corner of American life.
In an era marked by public health emergencies, political infighting, and deep mistrust of institutions, the CDC’s latest ordeal is a sobering reminder of just how fragile the nation’s health security can be when politics and policy collide.
