Tag Archives: HHS

Reuters reports: The Trump administration’s mass firings at the FDA have removed employees critical to reviewing new medicines, setting back years of effort to bring promising treatments to patients more quickly, former and current FDA sources told Reuters. The FDA is slated to lose 3,500 employees under HHS Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s massive restructuring of U.S. health agencies that is …

Nature reports: As the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) continues to defund nearly every research project on transgender health, the White House has directed the agency to focus on studying “regret” after a person transitions to align their body with their gender identity. Several NIH employees, who were granted anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the …

NPR reports: Teams that fulfilled requests for government documents lost their jobs on Tuesday as part of the Trump administration’s 10,000-person staff cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services. Their work, mandated by Congress since the 1960s under the Freedom of Information Act or FOIA, gives the public a view of the inner workings of federal health agencies. …

Reuters reports: The Trump administration has fired staff who were working on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s bird flu response as part of its mass layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services, according to a source familiar with the situation. The Tuesday firings, which many employees learned of as they attempted to enter office buildings and were …

The Washington Post reports: Some government health employees who were laid off Tuesday were told to contact Anita Pinder with discrimination complaints. But Pinder, who was the director at the Office of Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, died last year. The inclusion of Pinder’s name in reduction-in-force notices reflects the chaos of …

Politico reports: Nine Planned Parenthood state affiliates that receive federal money from the 55-year-old Title X family planning program got notices Monday, which they shared with POLITICO, informing them that their funding is being “temporarily withheld.” The notice pointed to “possible violations” of federal civil rights law and President Donald Trump’s executive orders — including prohibitions on promotion of diversity, …

The Associated Press reports: Employees across the massive U.S. Health and Human Services Department began receiving notices of dismissal on Tuesday in an overhaul ultimately expected to lay off up to 10,000 people. The notices come just days after President Donald Trump moved to strip workers of their collective bargaining rights at HHS and other agencies throughout the government. Health …

From the Wall Street Journal editorial board: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been secretary of Health and Human Services for all of six weeks, but he’s already vindicating his critics. First he downplayed a measles outbreak in Texas. Then he reportedly hired a trial-lawyer ally to work on a government study of the link between vaccines and autism. Now he …

Politico reports: A member of Elon Musk’s DOGE team — fired from the Treasury Department after the discovery of racist social media posts — has been working for weeks on sensitive systems at the Department of Health and Human Services, new government disclosures revealed Saturday. Marko Elez, whom Musk vowed to rehire after Trump allies pushed back on his termination, …

CBS News reports: The entire staff of the federal government’s Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy is expected to be laid off, multiple federal health officials told CBS News Friday. The moves are part of a broader restructuring plan ordered by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that involves cutting 20,000 HHS positions. Much of the …

Newsweek reports: Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on Thursday morning that his department would cut 10,000 jobs and merge sections to create a new “Administration for a Healthy America” (AHA). The cuts will hit the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and …

The Wall Street Journal reports: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is set to significantly cut the size of the department he leads, reshaping the nation’s health agencies and closing regional offices, according to documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal. Kennedy is set to announce Thursday the planned changes, which include axing 10,000 full-time employees spread …

Nature reports: The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have begun cancelling billions of dollars in funding on research related to the COVID-19 pandemic. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has killed more than 7 million people globally, including more than 1.2 million people in the United States, and continues to infect …

The New York Times reports: The Department of Health and Human Services has abruptly canceled more than $12 billion in federal grants to states that were being used for tracking infectious diseases, mental health services, addiction treatment and other urgent health issues. The cuts are likely to further hamstring state health departments, which are already underfunded and struggling with competing …

The Washington Post reports: A vaccine skeptic who has long promoted false claims about the connection between immunizations and autism has been tapped by the federal government to conduct a critical study of possible links between the two, according to current and former federal health officials. The Department of Health and Human Services has hired David Geier to conduct the …

The Associated Press reports: A surge of grant cancellations hit researchers focused on the health of gay, lesbian and transgender people last week, as the Trump administration continues to target what it describes as ideologically driven science. Last week the U.S. government terminated at least 68 grants to 46 institutions totaling nearly $40 million. Insights from minority populations can increase …

Politico reports: The Trump administration is shuttering HHS’ long Covid office as part of its reorganization, according to an internal email seen by POLITICO. The email was sent Monday by Ian Simon, the head of the Office of Long Covid Research and Practice. It said the closing is part of the Department of Health and Human Services’ reorganization. One HHS …

CBS News reports: President Trump has decided to pick Dr. Susan Monarez to be the new nominee to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, sources familiar with the decision tell CBS News, making permanent the acting role she has served at the public health agency in recent months. Monarez would be named in place of Dr. David Weldon, …

NBC News reports: The Trump administration is considering a plan to eliminate the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s division focused on HIV prevention and potentially move its responsibilities over to another department within the Department of Health and Human Services, according to a source familiar with the plan. HIV prevention advocates — who began hearing rumors of the possible …

Politico reports: The Department of Health and Human Services recently removed a former surgeon general’s warning declaring gun violence a public health crisis to comply with the president’s executive order to protect Second Amendment rights, according to a White House official. Giffords, the gun violence prevention group founded by former Rep. Gabby Giffords, announced on Monday that former Surgeon General …