Update: Nearly 1,300 probationary CDC employees are being forced out under the Trump administration’s move to get rid of all probationary employees. The Atlanta-based agency’s leadership was notified of the decision on Friday, Feb. 14.
Health experts and Georgia Democrats in Congress are sounding the alarm about the Trump administration’s planned cuts to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The federal agency employs roughly 12,000 people at its headquarters in Atlanta.
President Donald Trump has issued several executive orders so far affecting federal health agencies.
They include orders prohibiting what the administration deems “gender ideology” and diversity, equity and inclusion programs, as well as orders to shrink the federal workforce and to cut research-related National Institutes of Health funding.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia said the changes threaten to hamper the nation’s ability to protect public health and safety.
“If the CDC is subjected to this kind of unjustifiable partisan political interference, where we’re seeing vital disease data reporting suspended, where we’re seeing data and reports vanish from the internet, where we’re seeing an onslaught of attacks on the CDC’s nonpartisan scientific workforce, who is going to defend the nation from Ebola? Who is going to defend American children from measles? Who is going to defend us from tuberculosis?” Ossoff said at a briefing with Georgia physicians and policy experts.
Websites and data from the CDC and other agencies have been altered, removed or truncated over the last few weeks to comply with Trump orders, scrubbing guidance related to gender, contraceptives, HIV, youth mental health surveys and many other health topics.
A federal judge has ordered their restoration.
In separate cases, federal judges have blocked the administration’s plans to cap NIH research-related grants and offer deferred resignations to federal government workers — for now.
Former CDC Principal Deputy Director Dr. Anne Schuchat said she’s concerned about the cuts’ impacts to expertise at the nation’s top public health agency.
“There are a number of people who are close to retirement age, and their issues are going to be decided on a personal level. There are also a number of relatively new staff, who are on what’s called probationary status. They might be epidemic intelligence service or newly recruited data scientists,” she said. “I think it would be tragic if they left the agency in this unprecedented time. They’re really the future of public health, and so I hope they’ll stay.”
The Trump administration’s order limiting NIH research facilities and administrative costs for all new and existing grants to 15% has leaders from Atlanta universities and other medical and scientific research institutions scrambling.
Morehouse School of Medicine released a statement about the potential NIH funding cut.
“This decision will significantly impact medical research across the country, potentially limiting our ability to develop new treatments and innovations that benefit all Americans. As we evaluate the full implications in coming days, we will carefully assess the effects on our research programs and their vital contributions to public health. In the meantime, we remain steadfastly focused on our mission to improve access to healthcare in rural and urban communities as we train a new generation of healthcare professionals dedicated to delivering compassionate, evidence-based care to their patients,” the Morehouse School of Medicine statement read.
Emory officials say they are also closely monitoring federal policy changes that affect the organization.
In a message to faculty and staff, Ravi Thadhani, Emory executive vice president for health affairs, and Lanny Liebeskind, Emory interim provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, wrote that the limit to NIH Facilities and Administrative (F&A) funding would have “serious implications for Emory.”
“For Emory, this cap represents a roughly $140 million decrease in NIH F&A funding annually. F&A funding is essential to our research enterprise. Every life-changing breakthrough we pursue – from cures for diseases to the discovery of new medicines — is made possible by the laboratory infrastructure, research security, information technology, and state-of-the-art equipment this F&A funding provides. To put it simply, this development could affect nearly every academic unit at Emory, with both immediate and long-term consequences for our scientific research, clinical trials, patient care, and other academic pursuits. When combined with other recent guidance, and other potential federal policy changes that may be focused on higher education, the risks to Emory – and indeed to all leading research universities – are compounded,” Emory’s statement said.
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