Trump administration terminates CDC scientists, disease detectives

The Trump administration has eliminated dozens of positions at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), dismissing "disease detectives", senior scientists, and the entire staff of the agency's renowned public health journal.

The Friday, October 10, 2025 night, layoffs targeted critical personnel including epidemic response officers and researchers focused on respiratory illnesses, chronic diseases, and global health threats.

Notification emails arrived shortly before 9 p.m. Eastern time of Friday, informing employees their roles were deemed redundant or unnecessary.

The cuts affected roughly 70 Epidemic Intelligence Service officers, frontline responders to global disease outbreaks and eliminated the entire team producing the "Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report", the journal that first documented the AIDS epidemic in 1981.

The job cut points at the latest upheaval for an agency already grappling with mass resignations, an August, 2025 headquarters shooting, and the recent ouster of its director by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has publicly accused the CDC of corruption.

In addition to that, union officials confirmed human resources staff were recalled from shutdown furloughs specifically to terminate colleagues.

The personnel reduction points towards President Trump's promise to use the government shutdown to shrink federal operations, particularly targeting agencies criticized by conservatives for their COVID-19 pandemic response.

Alongside notice, affected employees received transition guides and appeal instructions while praising their service but barring them from agency facilities effective immediately.