U.S. Health Department to Lay Off 10,000 in Major Revamp

Cuts at FDA and CDC — Restructuring is Aimed to Put Functions Under Kennedy's Control

Author

Matt Davis
March 28, 2025

Greetings to all newcomers! I read the top story in the New York Times every morning so that you don’t have to. If you were forwarded this, you can subscribe here. I’m also doing a five-minute video version of this, each morning at around 9 a.m. (depending on how long it takes me to read the newspaper). If you’d like to follow me on LinkedIn (you can always watch the recording later). If you subscribe to my Youtube channel it’ll also send you a notification when I’m “going live.”

This morning’s front page shows a luxury train in South Africa, perched in luxury as Shantytowns “roll by.”

Today’s lead story by Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Christina Jewett is about the Trump administration laying off 10,000 employees at the Health Department under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

The overall reduction of the department is from 82,000 to about 62,000 (because there’ll be retirements and non-hires, as well as firings), and will hit the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control the hardest.

Meanwhile, Kennedy has hired a discredited vaccine skeptic for an autism study, the very next morning, which could not be more discouraging.

“If we increase vaccine hesitancy and immunization rates go down further, we will see more vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks,” said Dr. Christopher Beyrer, director of the Duke Global Health Institute. “That’s how it works.”

Yesterday I did mention that the Trump administration might attack to deflect attention from the leaked war plans in a group chat, and the timing of this announcement certainly reflects that, along with new tariffs on automakers which warranted 36-point font on the front page of the business section this morning:

“We’re going to do more with less,” RFK, the health secretary, said. Others, meanwhile, suggested it’s more likely that he’s going to do less with less. 

Rates of chronic disease like diabetes and heart disease have been rising for the last 20 years. RFK blames bureaucracy within his department for this and of course, vaccines for a rise in autism diagnoses — a disinformation theory which has been repeatedly discredited.

Senator Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, said: “In the middle of worsening nationwide outbreaks of bird flu and measles, not to mention a fentanyl epidemic, Trump is wrecking vital health agencies with the precision of a bull in a china shop.”

RFK said that under his plan, the C.D.C., which handles a wide range of health issues including H.I.V./AIDS, tobacco control, maternal health and the distribution of vaccines for children, would return to its “core mission” of infectious disease. And that has upset many, including these two people:

“Converting C.D.C. to an agency solely focused on infectious diseases takes us back to 1948 without realizing that in 2025, the leading causes of death are noncommunicable disease,” said Dr. Anand Parekh, who served in the health department during the Obama administration and is now the chief medical adviser at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington.

…

Xavier Becerra, who served as health secretary under President Joseph R. Biden Jr., issued a statement saying the cuts would most likely downgrade services to elderly and disabled people, and those with mental health challenges, in addition to preparedness for health crises.

“This has the makings of a man-made disaster,” he said on social media.

The reorganization will also cut 3,500 jobs from the F.D.A., which approves and oversees the safety of a vast swath of the medications and food people eat and rely on for well-being.

I’m just going to remind us all what RFK’s cousin, Caroline, had to say in a letter to the Senate the day before his confirmation as Health Secretary.

Caroline Kennedy, the cousin of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., sent a blistering letter to senators on Tuesday — a day before his confirmation hearings — that described him as a "predator" whose actions "have cost lives." 

In the letter to committee leaders, the former ambassador to Australia urged senators to reject his nomination as health and human services secretary, alleging that he "preys on the desperation of parents and sick children," as well as his own family members. 

"It's no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets because he himself is a predator," the two-page letter said. "His basement, his garage, and his dorm room were the centers of the action where drugs were available, and he enjoyed showing off how he put baby chickens and mice in the blender to feed his hawks. It was often a perverse scene of despair and violence." 

Family members who followed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. down the path of substance abuse, Caroline Kennedy wrote, "suffered addiction, illness and death, while Bobby has gone on to misrepresent, lie, and cheat his way through life." 

She also said that while her cousin has discouraged parents from vaccinating their children, he has vaccinated his own.

It’s hard for me to read this story without despairing for America, honestly.

The Times does feature another story on the front page about how in the past, America would often prosecute disclosures like the one that happened in the group chat over the weekend. And a reporter went and talked with some military pilots who are angry about it. But my expectation is that today, the Trump administration will do something else very aggressive and so horrifying, we’ll all be talking about that by Monday. What do you think?

Thanks for reading the newspaper with me so that you don’t have to.

Matt Davis lives in Manhattan with his wife and kid.