On top of layoffs, HHS was told to reduce spending on contracts

“On top of layoffs, HHS ordered to cut 35% of spending on contracts”: A Congressional aide said in an e-mail

Every agency within the HHS is on a mission to cut their contract expenditures. He stated that the cuts were designed to ensure that every dollar was used more efficiently while still focusing on improving public health and services.

Spending on contracts include mundane things like cleaning services or computer support, but can also include specialized equipment like freezer storage for bio-specimens or work with outside laboratories for tests, according to the director of health research for Public Citizen. The contracts often cover functions that are specialized or not large enough to require full-time staff.

Steinbrook said in an e-mail that these spending cuts will weaken public health. He called the cuts “arbitrary and senseless.”

Last week, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement that the layoffs were intended to reduce “bureaucratic sprawl.” He said that they are realigning the organization with its core mission and new priorities to reverse the chronic disease epidemic.

“This is at best getting water from a stone,” said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, via e-mail. They want to destroy the nation’s public health system. There are parts of our health system that give more value for prevention than the others.

Source: On top of layoffs, HHS ordered to cut 35% of spending on contracts

The HHS and FDA Staffing Cuts, and Implications for the Global Health Center and its HIV Branch(s) in the Post-Trump Era

The HHS fired thousands of people this week, following a plan to dismiss over 10,000 people, and also following a plan to cut staff at agencies under the Trump administration.

At FDA, the entire team that handles communications for the agency lost their jobs, according to staffers who were among those fired. And more than 800 people were fired at the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, according to an official who was laid off and fears retribution for sharing information.

Speaking of the staffing cuts, Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, who served as President Biden’s COVID-19 Response Coordinator, told NPR that it’s uncertain that these agencies will be able to continue tracking disease outbreaks, developing new treatments and other work critical for protecting Americans’ health.

We do not know what the implications will be. I’m worried that what we’re going to see is more people getting sick, more disease outbreaks and infrastructure that is going to be less and less capable of responding to those threats.”

According to one individual, the Global Health Center and its HIV branches would have “catastrophic consequences” if the cuts were made.

“My colleagues at the branch and I have really dedicated our careers to ensuring that mothers and babies receive the HIV services they need, and we serve as advocates for children to get the services they need so that they can be healthy and stay alive,” the scientist said. I am concerned that no one will be advocates for these populations who are overlooked anymore, and that puts them at greater risk for dying.

The State Department credits their employees with saving 25 lives through the efforts of thePEPFAR program, a government initiative to control HIV started by George W. Bush.

The CDC has provided HIV treatment for over 300,000 children, and 380,000 HIV positive pregnant and breastfeeding women, according to two scientists who work at Maternal and Child Health.

The Global Health Center has three divisions. Two of the divisions were unscathed: global immunization, which supports vaccine distributions for polio and other diseases, and global health protection, which is responsible for disease surveillance, gathering information and drawing on their network of labs.

As part of the restructuring, the director of the center Kayla Laserson was one of several CDC directors transferred to the Indian Health Service, leaving the Global Health Center in the hands of deputies.

Neither HHS nor CDC released further information on the cuts, but six current CDC/Global Health Center employees gave details to NPR. They asked for anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the press.

The current administration has taken sweeping and unprecedented actions that are coming at a time when many other governments are cutting their foreign aid budgets.

The U.S. has played a major role in global health and helped save millions of lives around the world with its support for global immunization efforts and HIV/AIDs treatments, says Janeen Madan Keller, the deputy director of the global health policy program at the Center for Global Development, a Washington, D.C., think tank.

“HIV knows no boundaries. If we see a resurgence of HIV globally. It’s going to have long term consequences everywhere, with the knowledge we have about the HIV resistance and the transmission rates. It’s just going to be detrimental. The epidemiologist said that it’s going to harm economies around the world.

One epidemiologist who was not affected by these cuts said even though this was a global health program, its elimination could have a direct impact on the lives of Americans.