**CDC Scientist Warns of “More Preventable Deaths” Amid Government Shutdown Layoffs**
Washington — A scientist laid off by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has expressed grave concerns about the impact of workforce reductions amid the ongoing government shutdown. Speaking anonymously to CBS News due to fear of retribution, the CDC veteran emphasized that “the everyday American should be very concerned” about the consequences of these cuts.
“It’s going to mean more deaths, more preventable deaths,” she said. “People will absolutely die from the impact of this administration.”
The scientist, who has dedicated the past decade to studying chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, revealed that all her work has come to a complete halt. “It’s truly like an episode of *Squid Games* because we don’t know what’s going to happen next,” she explained.
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### Layoffs Halted Temporarily by Federal Judge
The scientist’s comments came on the same day a federal judge in Northern California issued a verbal order temporarily halting all government layoffs initiated since the shutdown began. This ruling followed a lawsuit filed by federal employees’ unions.
“They went in and fired entire programs, even statutorily mandated by law programs, they cut entirely,” she noted. “So there is no staff to do this work anymore.”
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### Scale of Layoffs and Rescinded Notices
Since the shutdown started, the Trump administration has laid off more than 4,000 federal workers, with plans to exceed 10,000, according to Russell Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. About 600 CDC employees received layoff notices last week.
Internal CDC officials, speaking anonymously to CBS News, clarified that on October 10, approximately 1,000 CDC employees were initially notified of reductions in force (RIF), the government term for layoffs. However, hundreds of those notices were subsequently rescinded within 24 hours, lowering the total layoffs to around 600.
The judge’s ruling puts these layoffs on hold, leaving affected employees in limbo while the legal case proceeds.
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### Impacted CDC Divisions
A congressional source familiar with the cuts confirmed that the 600 layoffs affected staff across several key CDC units, including:
– All staff in CDC’s Washington, D.C., offices
– Office of the Director for the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
– National Center for State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Public Health Infrastructure and Workforce
– Policy and communications staff for the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control
Meanwhile, layoffs were rescinded for divisions such as:
– Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Center
– Global Health Center
– Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report team
– Epidemic Intelligence Service
– Scientists responding to measles outbreaks in the U.S. and Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
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### CDC Workforce Shrinks Amid Controversies
This year, the CDC has lost about 3,000 employees through resignations and layoffs — roughly a quarter of its workforce, according to AFGE Local 2883, the union representing CDC employees. These figures were corroborated by CDC officials.
The agency has faced turbulence since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. assumed leadership of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) earlier this year. A noted vaccine skeptic, Kennedy replaced all 17 members of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, the panel responsible for vaccine recommendations.
In August, less than a month after Senate confirmation, CDC Director Susan Monarez was fired. She stated her dismissal was due to pressure from Kennedy to “rubber stamp” his vaccine directives, a claim Kennedy denies. Monarez’s firing prompted several senior CDC officials to resign in protest.
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### Broader HHS Layoffs and Administration’s Response
Apart from the CDC, HHS laid off 41 employees from the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, a branch responsible for biodefense and monitoring threats like natural disasters, infectious disease outbreaks, and cyberattacks on hospitals.
An HHS spokesperson told CBS News that these cuts aim to reduce what the administration describes as a “bloated bureaucracy.” The spokesperson added that the eliminated positions were deemed “non-essential by their respective divisions” and framed the reductions as efforts to close “wasteful and duplicative entities” aligned with the Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.
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### Potential Public Health Consequences
The scientist warned that these staffing upheavals will jeopardize the CDC’s ability to respond to disease outbreaks. For instance, South Carolina recently reported five new measles cases, totaling 16 since July, and quarantined 139 students.
“The surge capacity of the CDC is going to be significantly hampered with these cuts,” she said. “It’s going to impede our ability to respond to public health outbreaks, just when all of these threats are on the rise.”
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As the legal battle over the layoffs continues, the future of many CDC employees and public health programs remains uncertain, raising alarms about the nation’s preparedness for emerging health threats.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cdc-scientist-let-go-during-shutdown-says-its-truly-like-an-episode-of-squid-games/
