The US department of health and human services has begun mass layoffs at various health agencies, including drug and tobacco safety regulators, as per a memo accessed by Bloomberg.
The decision is aligned with health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr plan to cut down the workforce in the national health services, which he had announced since he was sworn into the Trump administration.
The US Senate Help Committee has summoned Kennedy for a hearing related to the matter on April 10.
The department started dismissing workers on Tuesday morning, with entire offices or portions of offices being cut, including those working on sexually transmitted diseases, global health and birth defects, reported Bloomberg.
Employees who were fired by the reduction-in-force notice on Tuesday were immediately locked out of their health agency computer systems, halting their work in the office and leaving them unable to communicate with partners.
Kennedy had announced on March 27 that he planned to terminate 10,000 employees from the national health services. Along with voluntary departures through buyout programs, the agency’s staff is expected to shrink from 82,000 employees to 62,000 workers.
Top drug, tobacco safety regulators cut
The layoffs also affected top officials in departments dealing with food, drug and tobacco safety.
One official, Peter Stein, worked under the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and oversaw reviewers who would evaluate new drugs and determine their benefits and risks, which affected if they were approved for public use.
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“I received an email indicating that I’ve been removed as OND Director and offered a position in patient affairs — which I have declined,” Stein revealed to Bloomberg.
Previously, on March 28, another official Peter Marks, was fired. Marks headed the division of the FDA which approves vaccines, insulins and complex injectable medicines.
The FDA’s chief tobacco regulator, Brian King, was also removed from his position.
“It is with a heavy heart and profound disappointment that I share I have been placed on administrative leave,” he wrote, as per an email obtained by Bloomberg.
