Layoffs of federal health workers have started in America. Employees came to know about this layoff on Tuesday when they were stopped at the office gate itself.
Days after the US Department of Health and Human Services said it would cut 10,000 full-time jobs across its health agencies, some workers have started to get notices that they are losing their jobs. This round of cuts adds to the 10,000 employees who have already left voluntarily, reducing the total workforce from about 82,000 to 62,000 full-time employees.
Many top officials were included in these layoffs. US Health Minister Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had announced last week that 10,000 employees would be fired.
The US President's Office had said last week that there is a plan to lay off 3,500 employees from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
At the same time, 2,400 employees are to be laid off from the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Apart from this, the administration said that 1,200 employees are also to be fired from the National Institute of Health.
'Lives in jeopardy'
However, Democratic Senator Patty Murray of Washington predicted the cuts will have ramifications when natural disasters strike or infectious diseases, like the ongoing measles outbreak, spread. “They may as well be renaming it the Department of Disease because their plan is putting lives in serious jeopardy,” Murray said.
Undeterred by the criticism, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the cuts as part of a sweeping reorganization that would move or cut several parts of the federal health workforce, including the creation of a new Administration for a Healthy America.
Prakash Kumar Pandey
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