Hundreds of CDC workers are reinstated but majority of fired public health staffers left in limbo

Fired workers of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and their supporters are pushing for more public health jobs to be restored after a portion of the center’s terminated workforce was reinstated this week. 

Many of the more than 460 workers reinstated are assigned to the National Center for Environmental Health or the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD and Tuberculosis Prevention, according to the Associated Press.

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced plans to slash 10,000 jobs in late March, including 2,400 jobs at the CDC. 

The reinstated workers received a two-paragraph memorandum Wednesday from Tom Nagy, chief human capital officer with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, that said they were no longer part of the previously announced reduction in force, according to a copy of the memo obtained by the Georgia Recorder. 

“You will not be affected by the upcoming RIF,” the memo says. 

Sarah Boim, a former communication specialist at the CDC who is a leader of the group Fired But Fighting, which describes itself as a coalition of fired CDC employees and allies, said some of the reinstated staffers were already back at work Thursday.

Boim said the restored jobs are not enough, but she said she is skeptical that more people will be brought back since the newly reinstated group represents about 20% of the job losses at the CDC – which would mirror what Kennedy said earlier would need to be reversed because of “mistakes” made by the Department of Government Efficiency. 

Lawsuits challenging the terminations at the CDC and other federal agencies are also working their way through the courts.

Boim said the saga has left laboratory scientists and others sidelined from their work while collecting administrative pay.

“It’s mind boggling — the level of inefficiency and chaos that this whole process has sown,” she said. “I would like people to know that their money was going to pay for people with critical jobs to not do their jobs.”

Georgia Democrats who have pressed for the Trump administration to reverse course on the CDC cuts cheered the news Thursday but pressed for more fired CDC workers to be brought back. 

“The rehiring of hundreds of dedicated health workers, many of whom call Georgia home, is welcome news for those of us who believe that public health is vital to our wellbeing and safety — not a political game,” U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock said in a statement.

Warnock participated in a rally outside the CDC in April. Those rallies have been held every week since the mass layoffs started in February, with one held Tuesday despite the rain after Kennedy fired members of a key vaccine panel. 

“Under Secretary Kennedy’s leadership, the nation’s critical public health functions remain intact and effective,” Emily G. Hilliard, press secretary for the federal agency, said in a statement Thursday. “The Trump Administration is committed to protecting essential services—whether it’s supporting coal miners and firefighters through NIOSH, safeguarding public health through lead prevention, or researching and tracking the most prevalent communicable diseases.”