25%

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Not a doc, not a researcher, nor a scientist but he's Trump's friend

Photograph: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

25% gone from CDC but that's ok. Nobody gets sick and there are no pandemics, oh, I forgot. Covid 19 was a pandemic and millions of people died but no problem. Laying off 25% of the staff for Centers for Disease Control (and Prevention) is ok by me. Question, is it ok by you? I thought so.

A Quarter of the CDC Is Gone

Another round of terminations, combined with previous layoffs and departures, has reduced the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention workforce by about 3,000 people since January.

After the latest round of mass firings at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over the weekend, the union that represents agency employees estimates that around 3,000 people this year—about a quarter of the agency’s workforce—have departed the agency.

That number includes workers affected by layoffs earlier this year, as well those who have accepted the Trump administration’s “Fork in the Road” buyout program.

The CDC has been in turmoil since HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took office in February. In addition to carrying out mass layoffs, Kennedy is attempting to upend established vaccine policy. Earlier this year, he removed all 17 sitting members of a federal vaccine advisory committee, replacing them with members of his choosing. Several are vaccine skeptics and have been critical of public health measures taken during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In August, Kennedy fired CDC director Susan Monarez, who had been in the position for just a month. Monarez told a Senate committee in September that Kennedy demanded she sign off on new vaccine recommendations “regardless of the scientific evidence” and dismiss career officials without cause. During her short time at the CDC, a gunman opened fire on the agency’s Atlanta campus and killed a police officer who responded to the shooting.

The shooter allegedly targeted the CDC because he blamed the Covid-19 vaccine for making him sick and depressed.

Off the rails applies.