Chaos at CDC: Mistaken Firings, Big Reversals

 

What This Means for U.S. Public Health Readiness

Late last week, in a stunning turnaround, more than half of the CDC employees who were abruptly dismissed by the Trump administration have been reinstated. According to the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), approximately 700 of the 1,300 staffers who reportedly got layoff notices were told Saturday that their termination was a mistake — while nearly 600 remain separated.

“Those who got the wrong notices were never actually separated,” said Andrew Nixon, communications director at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Many were told this reversal was due to a coding error in the layoff notices.

Among those brought back to work were vital teams responsible for the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, CDC programs handling immunizations and global health, and staff managing over $3 billion in public health grants.

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The Fallout: Mistakes, Resignations & Disarray

Dr. Debra Houry, formerly CDC’s chief medical officer and deputy director for science, had resigned in protest over firings that included longtime employees. She confirmed that some of her former colleagues — including those in charge of CDC publications — were reinstated.

Athalia Christie, a leader in the agency’s measles response, was among those mistakenly told they were fired. The U.S. is currently experiencing its highest measles rate in 25 years, with 1,563 cases so far this year.

Even CDC’s “disease detectives” in the Epidemic Intelligence Service got email alerts stating their termination — only to be told later that those notices were sent in error. An internal source said, “We think all staff and all officers are back.”

Critics have described the incident in blunt terms. Dr. Nirav Shah, who resigned earlier this year as CDC’s principal deputy director, blasted it as “pure managerial incompetence,” lamenting that the chaos now seems deliberate.

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What Now? The Risks to Public Health

While the coding mistake spared many, roughly 600 CDC staffers remain laid off, particularly from programs in violence prevention, injury control, and offices within the CDC Director’s purview.

Experts warn that these cuts leave the United States dramatically less prepared for future health threats. “When the next crisis hits,” Shah said, “we’ll spend precious weeks or months scrambling — time we should already have been ready.”

President Trump, defending the cuts, claimed they were part of a purge of workers aligned with the Democratic Party — a justification that has drawn concern over legality and motive. AFGE has already filed lawsuits, pointing to mass firings across multiple federal agencies.

As federal courts consider these challenges, the reinstated CDC employees are back at their posts — but the institutional damage may last far longer than a weekend.