Trump and Kennedy just put America at risk
A dark day at Health and Human Services portends a much darker future.
By Jeff Nesbit
President Donald Trump and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. put the nation at risk today and made us all far less safe by firing thousands of dedicated public health, medical and scientific staff across multiple agencies at HHS.
Trump and Kennedy fired career staff at agencies like the Agency for Children and Families and the Agency for Community Living (which provides nutritious, healthy “Meals on Wheels” to tens of millions of senior citizens). Those agencies were decimated, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.
The Food and Drug Administration was hit especially hard. Trump and Kennedy fired staff with years of public health, scientific and medical expertise – career public servants who keep drugs safe and effective, who protect patients in clinical trials, and who fight every single day to safeguard us from potential pandemics like avian flu. The FDA staff who work on those were all fired.
“I'm overwhelmed with messages about the firings,” Biden’s former FDA Commissioner, Robert Califf, wrote on LinkedIn. “The FDA as we've known it is finished, with most of the leaders with institutional knowledge and a deep understanding of product development and safety no longer employed. I believe that history will see this as a huge mistake.”
Today, 241 political appointees who served at HHS during the Obama and Biden administrations signed an open letter to their former career colleagues about the dangerous, senseless, and cruel cuts to HHS staff and multiple agencies, which will directly harm our nation and put all of us at risk. Here is the full text of the letter signed by these former HHS political appointees, which lays out the gravity of the dire situation clearly:
“Dear Colleagues,
“You’ve likely read the press release by now — the one dressed in the usual euphemisms about ‘efficiency’ and ‘streamlining.’ But let us speak plainly. What is happening now is not a restructuring — it is a calculated dismissal of 10,000 public servants. Entire agencies — ACL, AHRQ, HRSA, NIOSH, SAMHSA — are being dismantled or buried inside a hollow new entity. The promise is savings. The reality is the abandonment of people who rely on us most: the sick, the vulnerable, the poor.
“You are not excess. You are not redundant. You are the backbone of this Department. And while your roles may have been struck from the org chart, the impact of your work lives on. The mother seeking help for postpartum depression, the elder depending on a warm meal, the nurse relying on the research you advanced — they will feel your absence. They already do. That is the mark of true public service: it works in silence and disappears at great cost.
“You did not take this work for praise or profit. You took it because you believed that public health is a public good — that government, when staffed by principled people, can be a force for care, for safety, for human dignity. That belief has not failed. It has been wounded. And it will rise again — because people like you do not give up.
“HHS is what it is because of you. The genome was mapped, Head Start was born, HIV care became accessible, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline was launched, Indian Country was served, people had access to life-saving overdose-reversing drugs — not by slogans, but by your labor. No press release can erase that. No political campaign can claim it. You held the line when it mattered. And now, scattered though we may be, we carry that mission forward — in new roles, in new places, with the same resolve.
“The storm is here. But so are we. Thank you for your service.”
It’s hard to adequately describe the level of carnage that Trump and Kennedy inflicted on HHS today – and the levels of collateral damage it will mean to everything from vaccine safety and patient access to NIH trials to our ability to prepare for deadly pandemics and administer social safety net services.
The layoff notices began arriving early Tuesday for thousands of employees at HHS, which has more than two dozen agencies and staff divisions. As many as 10,000 workers might be hit by the cuts. Some of the nation’s top career scientific, public health and medical officials were fired.
Staff who protect millions of people who rely on Medicare and Medicaid were fired. Staff who’ve spent years developing safer alternatives to tobacco products that kill millions were fired. Staff who track emerging potentially deadly pathogens were fired. Staff who work on scientific and medical mysteries that hold the keys to cancer cures and efforts to address chronic diseases were fired.
Tuesday was truly a dark day for HHS. But it portends even darker, riskier, and dangerous days ahead for tens of millions of Americans who’ve relied on HHS staff to make their lives healthier and safer.
Jeff Nesbit was the assistant secretary of public affairs for HHS at HHS during the Biden administration.
Two excerpts that stand out to me:
“HHS is what it is because of you. The genome was mapped, Head Start was born, HIV care became accessible, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline was launched, Indian Country was served, people had access to life-saving overdose-reversing drugs — not by slogans, but by your labor. “
“Staff who protect millions of people who rely on Medicare and Medicaid were fired. Staff who’ve spent years developing safer alternatives to tobacco products that kill millions were fired. Staff who track emerging potentially deadly pathogens were fired. Staff who work on scientific and medical mysteries that hold the keys to cancer cures and efforts to address chronic diseases were fired.”
It’s an administrative massacre—lost expertise, lost careers, lost services, lost programs, lost discoveries, lost innovation. Adding up to a lost future of good health for Americans.
Why? So the rich can get their tax cuts, which is the true meaning of “efficiency.” We have given too much credence to the “efficiency” idea. Every piece of writing starts with, “Of course, government can be more efficient….” Enough already. The immorality of the cuts should be brought home more forcefully, as well as who will benefit the most from reduced taxes.
This horrible move will cause irreparable harm. I hope there is legal pushback. Senator Cassidy allowed RFK to be confirmed and he’s destroying public health, research, safety,etc. This benefits no one.