Trump health layoffs include staff overseeing bird flu response: Reuters

Bird flu could be heading north this spring with fewer federal health officials working to stop it

Bird flu cases could rise as birds migrate north. But the sweeping cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services include workers focused on the virus.

FDA suspends program to improve bird flu testing due to staff cuts

The Food and Drug Administration is suspending efforts to improve its bird flu testing of milk, cheese and pet food due to massive staff cuts at the agency, according to an email seen by Reuters and a source familiar with…

Bird Flu Response Staff Laid Off Under Trump

Under the new health agency, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has vowed to lay off at least 10,000 people from federal agencies to cut costs. The current administration has made good on that promise and fired staff who were working on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s bird flu response. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association and a source familiar with the situation, many employees learned of as…

FDA employee found out she'd been laid off by email at 5 a.m.: 'I don't see how this benefits Americans at all'

Employees who track disease outbreaks, conduct medical research, and monitor food safety were among the 10,000 laid off by the Trump administration on Tuesday.

Dropping U.S. Biodefenses: Why Cuts to Federal Health Agencies Make Americans Less Safe

On April 1, the Trump administration began making sweeping changes to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) by firing thousands of staff, some of whom learned of this decision when they arrived at work on Tuesday morning and were not allowed to enter the building. According to HHS, the administration plans to reduce the HHS workforce from 82,000 full-time employees to 62,000. It is also consolidating the current 28 divisions int…

What’s Lost: Trump Whacks Tiny Agency That Works To Make the Nation's Health Care Safer

Sue Sheridan’s baby boy, Cal, suffered brain damage from undetected jaundice in 1995. Helen Haskell’s 15-year-old son, Lewis, died after surgery in 2000 because weekend hospital staffers didn’t realize he was in shock. The episodes turned both women into advocates for patients and spurred research that made American health care safer. On April 1, the Trump administration slashed the organization that supported that research — the Agency for Heal…