Breaking News! It’s official: The official Public Health Week may be in April, but Elon Musk has declared the month of February to henceforth be known as MAGA/PH — “Make America Gasp Again/Public Health Month.”
That’s because in February 2025, the Trump/Musk Administration paid special attention to our nation’s public health and to the civil servants who work to study, understand, promote, and protect it. There have been lots of attention-grabbing headlines and stories and certainly not in a good way. Hence the GASP replacing GREAT.
Whereas Public Health Week is a “time to recognize the contributions of public health and highlight issues that are important to improving our nation,” Make America Gasp Again/Public Health Month seems to be a time to undermine public health efforts and decimate public health practitioners.
What exactly is public health? It’s different from medicine and medical care which addresses the health and treatment of individuals. Public health focuses on populations, as small as a local neighborhood, or as big as an entire state, country, or region of the world. It works to promote and protect the health of all people and their communities. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is our national public health agency. But much of our country’s public health efforts reside with the individual states. And those institutions have taken a heavy hit in recent years due to the fallout of COVID-related disinformation.
The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has been in the Administration’s crosshairs. As you likely know, our nation’s premier public health and science agencies are housed within DHHS, including the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and more. On February 13, the Senate confirmed the nomination of vaccine-skeptic Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to head the Department – alarming, actually terrifying – public health experts.
But let’s move on from there to other news that makes one gasp.
MAGA/PH Month News
In just a few short weeks, over 5,000 DHHS employees were terminated (see here, here, here, here, here). The list of terminations includes:
- CDC: Nearly 1,300 probationary workers or nearly 10% of its workforce. [Note – in this context, probationary refers to those hired within the past year; nothing to do with their job performance.]
Short detour: There was quite an uproar when news spread that CDC’s disease detective group (the EIS– Epidemic Intelligence Service) would be part of the termination effort. Directly quoting Stat First Opinion: “
The EIS has been a cornerstone of the CDC’s ability to investigate and control disease outbreaks. Founded in 1951 in response to concerns about biological warfare, EIS has since trained thousands of epidemiologists who have played critical roles in addressing some of the most significant public health threats of our time. From the eradication of smallpox to the response to Ebola, Covid-19, and countless other outbreaks, EIS officers have been on the front lines, often putting their own safety at risk to protect the public.
The hostility to EIS is understandable for Trump. It was EIS officers who first investigated mass COVID outbreaks in meatpacking plants in 2000. Trump and his agriculture department were not too happy about that report and softened its initial recommendations in a final .
The backlash to elimination of EIS was fierce. The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) (APIC) quickly called for the reinstatement of the EIS officers, and the Administration backed down. In response to backlash about the planned firings, Musk posted on X on Monday that EIS is “not canceled” and that those suggesting otherwise should “stop saying bullshit.” (read about the retreat here)
- NIH: Approximately 1,165 employees, representing around 6% of its workforce
- FDA: The exact number of cuts are unclear, they were primarily in divisions dealing with food safety, medical devices, and tobacco products
- USDA: The Agriculture Department also has public health responsibilities especially when it comes to food safety and avian influenza. Last week, USDA “accidentally” fired several agency employees who were working on the federal government’s response to the H5N1 avian flu outbreak. Realizing their mistake, USDA officials scrambled to rehire them.
These layoffs are allegedly part of a broader strategy by the administration to reduce federal government spending, staffing, and budgets, and thus enhance efficiency – no matter what the cost.
These layoffs are allegedly part of a broader strategy by the administration to reduce federal government spending, staffing, and budgets, and thus enhance efficiency – no matter what the cost.
I’m all for efficiency, really, I am. But I’m totally unconvinced that arbitrary mass firings and purges are a smart way to do it. Aside from being just plain cruel in implementation, slashing our federal public health infrastructure seriously erodes our nation’s ability to respond to health threats and provide information, resources, and services that help keep us healthy.
Especially in an age of new outbreaks or emerging infectious diseases – such as avian influenza — eliminating these disease detectives, public health experts, and other safeguards could be catastrophic.
What This Mean for Public Health
Well, it doesn’t take a crystal ball to envision some of the likely impacts these dramatic cuts in the nation’s public health infrastructure will have. They include:
- Disrupting government services, like processing Social Security & Medicare payments and benefits
- Limiting the ability of the CDC and the FDA to respond to health crises, process drug approvals, approve medical devices, or manage disease outbreaks
- Limiting EPA, FEMA, and OSHA’s ability to respond to emergencies and provide disaster assistance, e.g., for workplace fatalities, chemical accidents, and oils spills
- Limiting OSHA’s ability to understand and regulate workplace and health safety hazards
- Impacting the timely provision of services to veterans, children, needy families
- Preparing for the next pandemic
- Forecasting the weather
- Monitoring and regulating air, food, and water quality
And this is not a comprehensive list. You can add your concerns in the comments.
Bottom Line
I suppose some will applaud these cuts, while many of us gasp at their magnitude. Both the short and the long-term consequences are significant. Not least of which is the loss of institutional knowledge, experience, and expertise in dealing with public health issues, and ultimately a loss of public confidence in government. Maybe even in this administration. Time will tell.
Excellent piece Kathy! In addition to the public health impact on our health through the willy-nilly firing of skilled, experienced health professionals is the personal impacts of massive layoffs on these valued individuals, their families and communities. The notion that longer work hours with fewer resources will increase productivity and efficiency is nonsense. It seems clear that a primary focus of these initiatives is to undermine the public’s confidence in government.