The Trump administration’s sweeping overhaul of the federal government, led by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has triggered concerns among public health experts, researchers, and advocacy groups. They fear a significant brain drain and severe consequences for public health.
In the past week alone, termination notices were sent to thousands of employees across various health agencies as the administration aggressively downsized the federal government.
These now-unemployed workers were engaged in critical projects such as infectious disease research, medical device safety, food safety, reducing healthcare costs, and improving maternal health outcomes.
“The federal government has a huge footprint. [These layoffs] will interrupt all fields of research. Every phase of our scientific endeavor has been interrupted, including that research that is essential for our national security,” said Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association.
Benjamin expressed concerns that the damage inflicted by the administration could deter the next generation of scientists from pursuing careers in public service.
“I am very concerned that this generation of people will be so dissuaded that it’s going to take a lot more work and coaxing and assurances, even when things settle down, to get people to see this as a career that’s dependable,” he said.
Lawmakers and advocates warn that unless the job cuts are reversed, lives will be at risk. Senate Democrats have already taken action, sending a letter on Friday to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., demanding transparency about the dismissals and whether any impact assessment was conducted beforehand.
“The Trump Administration is firing staff and harming programs that Americans rely on every day, and these arbitrary cuts will endanger children, seniors, and at-risk communities, set medical progress back by decades, curtail patient access to care, and make the nation less prepared for emerging public health threats,” the senators wrote.
Lisa Lacasse, president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, warned in a statement that the cuts could “dismantle the critical government infrastructure that has played a pivotal role in cancer survivorship for 18 million individuals who are alive today in the U.S., resulting in more suffering from cancer nationwide.”
She further explained the consequences: “Without the appropriate workforce necessary to drive the essential services and programs within HHS, active clinical trials could be abandoned, the nation’s drug shortages could worsen, the time it takes to review innovative new cancer treatments could lengthen, cancer prevention efforts may be halted and access to lifesaving cancer screenings could be cut off for millions of people in America.”
One former scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had been researching human papillomavirus, a virus that can sometimes lead to cancer.
Then, on a Saturday evening, an email arrived, informing the scientist that their position had been eliminated.
“They said, I’m probationary, and have poor performance, and I’m gone,” the individual said.
The layoffs appear to have disproportionately affected employees in the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) food, tobacco, and medical device divisions. One former worker, a medical device reviewer, said their team was slashed by nearly half overnight.
This employee had been hired just a year ago as part of an effort to expand the agency’s review capacity for medical devices.
What puzzled them the most was that their position—like many others in the FDA’s drug and medical device divisions—was not funded by taxpayer dollars but rather by industry-paid user fees.
“We spent a lot of money trying to hire these very qualified candidates because almost everybody in my team has a PhD or a master’s degree and has eight plus years of industry experience,” the employee said. “That’s taxpayer money wasted. You spend all the money hiring people, interviewing people, and now they just fired all of them without any reason.”
Nearly half of the FDA’s $7.2 billion budget is sourced from fees paid by the companies it regulates. Under federal law, businesses pay user fees to the FDA to ensure timely reviews of their products. These fees fund the additional scientists needed to conduct those evaluations.
The medical device trade group AdvaMed has urged HHS to reconsider the layoffs.
“Unfortunately, as a result of these reductions, FDA will lose hundreds of new employees, the best and most innovative hires under our most recent agreement,” AdvaMed President and CEO Scott Whitaker said in a statement.
A current employee in the FDA’s food safety division revealed that 10 scientists had been laid off from their office of 90.
“What’s going to happen with the work that they were in the middle of doing?” the employee asked. “We’re already understaffed … just to get these new people coming in the past year or two is a huge help, but we’re still below what we need. We’re close to our backs breaking, to be honest with you, to make up for all the work that the rest of us will pick up.”
Another FDA food division employee described widespread confusion surrounding the firings, as even managers were uncertain about who was being let go and when.
“We suspected they might be coming, but you know, none of our leadership knew … our office is still trying to take stock of who was even fired,” the employee said.
A recent office-wide conference call was described as somber.
“The mood was like a wake. The grief is palpable,” said one employee.
Despite the chaos and uncertainty, many remaining employees remain committed to their mission.
“How do we figure out what they were working on? How do we figure out who’s going to take that work? We’re going to keep doing what we said we were going to do, just keep the food supply safe,” the employee said.