700+ CDC Layoffs Reversed Amid Backlash Over Cuts to Disease Response Teams

TUESDAY, Oct. 14, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Layoff notices to some 740 workers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been rescinded.

While personnel leading the CDC’s response to U.S. measles outbreaks, suicide prevention and an overseas Ebola were spared, The Washington Post reports that fired officials included dozens responsible for safeguarding the nation from chemical, biological and nuclear threats.

In all, about 1,300 layoff notices were sent to CDC staffers late Friday as the Trump administration looked to slash costs during the ongoing federal government shutdown.

A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said the administration is closing “wasteful and duplicative entities” and returning the workforce to levels closer to the end of the first Trump administration.

HHS staffing grew from about 82,000 in 2020 to 92,000 last year, while the CDC grew from about 13,000 to 15,000.

HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said all employees receiving layoff notices were “designated non-essential by their respective divisions.”

A former HHS official told The Post that those fired included workers with top-secret clearance who work at the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) with intelligence agencies on biodefense issues such as pandemics and weaponized pathogens.

Others at ASPR who got layoff notices included workers who helped coordinate biodefense drills and those who monitor data on infectious disease outbreaks, natural disasters and cyberattacks on hospitals for the main HHS operations center, according to that official and a senior U.S. health official.

The Post said Nixon would not answer questions about layoffs at individual offices across the health agencies.

The whiplash of the reduction in force, or RIF, was demoralizing, current and former CDC staff members said.

“The effect of the on-again, off-again RIF on the psyche of a traumatized organization is not inconsequential,” said Demetre Daskalakis, one of three senior CDC leaders who quit earlier this year to protest what they called politicization of science at the agency. He was director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, whose top leaders were laid off then brought back.

Health groups condemned the mass firings and rehirings. 

“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?” said Yale University epidemiologist Gregg Gonsalves, a leader of Defend Public Health, a group of health care workers and public health researchers. 

The group said the firings add to previous CDC staff reductions and political interference that triggered resignations of experienced leaders.