Legacy Media Overplays CDC RIF Reaction
Mainstream outlets erupted after OMB head Russ Vought issued reduction in force notices to CDC staff late Friday. The notices hit teams that handle respiratory and chronic disease work and even the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Emails reportedly arrived just before 9 p.m., notifying staff their duties were redundant or duplicated elsewhere. Naturally, the New York Times framed it as a Friday night massacre.
This is from the NYT piece.
It was unclear on Friday how many C.D.C. workers were affected. But it was the latest blow to an agency that has been wracked by mass resignations, a shooting at its Atlanta headquarters in August and the firing of its director under pressure from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Layoff notices landed in the email inboxes of C.D.C. employees shortly before 9 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, notifying employees that their duties had been deemed unnecessary or “virtually identical” to those being performed elsewhere in the agency. Scientists, including leaders, in offices addressing respiratory diseases, chronic diseases, injury prevention and global health were among those affected.
The staff of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the journal that reports on health trends and emerging infectious threats, was also laid off. The publication’s storied history includes a June 1981 report that five previously healthy gay men were treated for an unusual pneumonia — the first hint of the AIDS epidemic.
Roughly 70 Epidemic Intelligence Service officers — the so-called “disease detectives” who respond to outbreaks around the globe — received layoff notices, according to a person familiar with them. The service was spared during an earlier round of layoffs in February.
Context matters: a shutdown pushed agencies into triage and forced hard decisions. The CDC was always going to be the headline.
Union officers said HR staff were brought back from furlough just to send notices. Just witness the whining.
The C.D.C. layoffs are part of a round of cuts across the government to fulfill President Trump’s threats to use the shutdown to shrink the federal government. But for the nation’s public health agency, which has been a primary target of Mr. Kennedy, they were the latest crisis in a year of upheaval.
Many Americans call this keeping a promise to reduce government. Comments on the NYT’s X post say it all:
And let’s face it: the stench of the CDC’s COVID pandemic handling lingers strongly in the air.
The CDC’s pandemic failures remain in voters’ memory.
They were warned.
Bottom line? It’s all on the Democrats. They can’t say it isn’t — they’re the ones holding up the government.
Trump is forcing their hand if they try to prolong this. And those who have long been pushing for reducing the government are all in favor of this today.
[…]
Vought’s announcement has now put the Democrats in a box. Either they stop the foolishness, or more government jobs get the axe. Looks like the Democrats have miscalculated, just a bit. And of course, a legal action is already underway from AFGE, the largest federal employee union.
Several C.D.C. employees, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation, described the mood Friday night as grim. Some noticed a pattern: This latest round of layoffs came on the eve of the Indigenous Peoples’ Day holiday weekend, while previous cuts to federal health agencies were announced on Valentine’s Day and April Fools’ Day.
The layoff notices, signed by Tom Nagy, the chief human capital officer at the Department of Health and Human Services, arrived with 10 attachments, including information about severance pay, how to file an appeal to overturn the layoffs and a “guide to career transition,” according to copies of the documents obtained by The New York Times.
These now-former employees have transition benefits and options beyond outrage. If Democrats keep the shutdown going, expect more RIFs and political consequences.
