The rehired staff, who number around 460, work with the CDC’s viral disease prevention efforts and sexual health testing labs, among others. The reinstatements are a ray of light in an acrimonious week that also saw protests and the complete overhaul of the agency’s vaccine advisory committee.
It’s been a chaotic few days at the CDC, which on Tuesday fielded a protest from staff and retired workers, and on Wednesday rehired hundreds of previously terminated employees.
Tuesday’s protest, as reported by NBC News, took place at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta and drew current and retired employees who criticized the steep staffing and budget cuts enacted in recent months. Demonstrators, who also blasted this week’s eviction of all 17 members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel, likewise called for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s resignation and urged the government to appoint a new CDC director.
“I am here today to tell you that the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has shown himself to be a domestic health threat,” Anna Yousaf, researcher at the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said at the protest, as per NBC.
On Wednesday, the CDC reinstated some 460 employees who had previously been laid off, according to reporting from The Associated Press, citing a union representing the workers.
Some 200 of the rehired employees belonged to the CDC’s National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention, as per the AP, while staff at labs that test for sexually transmitted disease have also been reinstated. Meanwhile, around 150 employees at the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health have also returned to the agency.
This is not the first time HHS has walked back on its massive layoffs. On Monday, for instance, the FDA reinstalled its generic drug policy office after previously clearing the team out. Since Kennedy’s reorganization sweep in March, the FDA has also brought back dozens of fired employees, some of whom were involved in making travel arrangements for inspectors and in negotiating the regulator’s user fee programs.
The rehirings are a ray of light in what has been an acrimonious week at the CDC.
Late Wednesday, Kennedy named eight new members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)—many of whom have documented histories of vaccine skepticism, just like Kennedy.
Analysts and public health and medical experts slammed Kennedy’s move to empty the ACIP. Analysts at LeerinK Partners wrote in a June 10 note that “new members will likely be sympathetic to at least some of RFK’s beliefs regarding alleged dangers of vaccines.” Kennedy’s announcement of the new lineup on Wednesday seems to bear these concerns out.
The American Medical Association has also spoken out against the ACIP exodus, directing its leadership in an emergency resolution on Tuesday to urge a Senate HELP Committee investigation into Kennedy’s actions. “Vaccines have been proven to dramatically reduce hospitalization and death,” the AMA resolution read, noting that “it is imperative for recommendations to be made without political interference.”
