Trump’s firings strike the nation’s health agencies
Many of those terminated worked on issues critical to consumers, from improving health care to regulating food packaging to responding to infectious-disease outbreaks.
Updated February 18, 2025 at 7:36 a.m. EST, today at 7:36 a.m. EST 8 min
By Rachel Roubein, Lena H. Sunand Carolyn Y. Johnson
The nation’s health agencies were upended over the weekend by a confusing, slow-motion rollout of terminations that left staff worried about the future of various projects, including those to improve maternal health, discover new cancer treatments and provide help for 9/11 responders.
Several thousand probationary employees across the Department of Health and Human Services were notified they would be terminated after four weeks of leave — fired in what some are calling a “Valentine’s Day massacre.”
The termination notices, which arrived over the weekend, capped a chaotic week of speculation about when the cuts would come and who would be affected.The terminations had a swift impact. The Food and Drug Administration’s top food official resigned Monday, citing the “indiscriminate firing” of 89 staff members from the agency’s food program and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s rhetoric toward staff.
Source Links: Trump’s firings strike the nation’s health agencies – The Washington Post
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