To the layoffs add Another cut of 10 thousand employees In the sector, within the framework of the Program of Voluntary Low and early retirements undertaken by Trump and his advisor, Elon Musk.
Thus, the template of the department of Health and their agencies It will pass from 82 thousand to 62 thousand employees, According to a statement from US government.
ANDl estimated savings will be US $ 1,800 million annuallya drop in the sea of the budget of the Department of Health and Human Services, which amounts to US $ 1.8 billion.
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The Secretary of Health, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., declared that the dismissals are part of a greater reform in his department, with the objective of Rehender efforts towards prevention of chronic diseases.
It is a “difficult moment for all of us (…) our hearts are with those who have lost their jobs,” Kennedy said.
The layoffs affect the Department of Health and the federal agencies responsible for approveing new medicines, Respond to Epidemics or conduct medical research.
“But reality is clear: What we have been doing has not worked”Kennedy said, complaining that the“ Americans are every time most sick every year”, Despite the increase in spending on federal agencies that execute public health policies in the country.
According to photos and testimonies published on social networks, employees They learned of their early dismissal on April 1by email or when their access cards stopped working.
According to US media, at high positions from these agencies, such as Jeanne Marrazzo – who had replaced Anthony Fauci, a key figure during the pandemic, at the head of one of the NIH branches – they have been offered to relocate themselves in isolated places of Alaska or Oklahoma.
“The FDA, as we knew it, is over, since most leaders with institutional knowledge and a deep understanding of the development and safety of products are no longer employed,” said Robert Califf, excommunicated from the agency during the administrations of Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
The measure occurs in the middle of the worst Measles outbreak in years in the United States and in the face of growing fears that avian flu can cause the next human pandemic.
Kennedy has alarmed health experts with their rhetoric, which minimizes the importance of vaccines, and even suggested that aviar flu freely extends between corral birds in the United States.