RFK Jr. Just Kneecapped the CDC on His First Day

[Pelican Press 0]

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RFK Jr. Just Kneecapped the CDC on His First Day

Hours after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pledged that the Department of Health and Human Services would not undergo a staff purge, it did.

The Trump administration laid off half of its Epidemic Intelligence Service, otherwise known as the “Disease Detectives.” The lay off affected 1,260 staff,

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NBC News’s Lewis Kamb.

Top-ranking officials with the CDC, the HHS subagency that oversees the program, told

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that the cuts would have a devastating effect on the country’s ability to assess blooming diseases. They are just some of the thousands of probationary workers taking a hit as Elon Musk’s DOGE combs the federal government for possible programs to slash.

“The country is less safe,” Dr. Anne Schuchat, an alumna of the disease research program, told CBS. “These are the deployable assets critical for investigating new threats, from anthrax to Zika.”

Many staffers that go through the program serve on the frontlines of public health responses before later rising through the ranks of the CDC. Another health official observed to the news outlet that many of the fired staffers were early career professionals who had been trained by the agency.

“Now their dream is canceled,” the unidentified official said.

Kennedy was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday. In an interview with Fox News after he was sworn in, Kennedy pledged that employees who work in service of public health had “nothing to worry about” under his tenure fronting America’s health policy.

“If you’ve been involved in good science, you’ve got nothing to worry about,” Kennedy said. “If you care about public health, you’ve got nothing to worry about.”

Kennedy’s role as secretary of HHS will have him

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a budget of nearly $2 trillion and a staff of 90,000 federal employees, as well as hand him the reins of other critical health programs under the fold of HHS, such as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The 71-year-old’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda has not been laid out in specifics, but Kennedy has vaguely promised to tackle the nation’s rising obesity rates and SNAP benefits (formerly known as food stamps), and has claimed he will work the Department of Agriculture to

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ultra-processed foods from the American market.

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#RFK #Kneecapped #CDC #Day

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