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Almost 200 employees have been invited back to work by the nation’s top public health agency, just two weeks after receiving termination notices.
On Tuesday, some Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) probationary employees who were laid off last month were sent emails with the subject line, “Read this e-mail immediately”, according to current and former CDC employees.
Two federal health officials who were briefed but were not authorized to discuss it and spoke on condition of anonymity, said about 180 people received the reinstatement emails.
The message said that “after further review and consideration,” a February 15 termination notice has been rescinded and the employee was cleared to return to work on Wednesday.
“You should return to duty under your previous work schedule. We apologize for any disruption that this may have caused,” it said.
It’s not clear how many of them returned to work on Wednesday or whether the employees would be spared from further widespread job cuts that are expected soon across government agencies.
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The CDC is the latest federal agency trying to coax back workers soon after they were dismissed as part of President Donald Trump’s and billionaire Elon Musk’s cost-cutting purge.
Similar reversals have been made among employees responsible for medical device oversight, food safety, bird flu response, nuclear weapons and national parks.
The Atlanta-based CDC is charged with protecting Americans from outbreaks and other public health threats. Before the job cuts, the agency had about 13,000 employees.
Last month, Trump administration officials told the CDC that nearly 1,300 of the agency’s probationary employees would be let go. That tally quickly changed, as the number who actually got termination notices turned out to be 700 to 750.
With 180 more people now being told they can return, the actual number of CDC employees terminated so far would seem to stand somewhere around 550. But federal health officials haven’t confirmed any specifics.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last month pledged “ radical transparency ” at the department, but HHS officials have not provided detail about CDC staff changes and did not respond to emailed requests on Tuesday and Wednesday. An agency spokesman, Andrew Nixon, previously told the AP only that CDC had more full-time employees after the job cuts than it did before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Those who received reinstatement emails included outbreak responders in two fellowship programs — a two-year training that prepares recent graduates to enter the public health workforce through field experience and a laboratory program that brings in doctorate-holding professionals.
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock celebrated the reinstatements, but said it’s not enough.
“Today’s announcement is a welcome relief, but until all fired CDC employees are restored, our country’s public health and national security will continue to be at risk,” Warnock, a Georgia Democrat, said in a statement on Wednesday.
