The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was plunged into disarray after inadvertently sending layoff notices to some of its most seasoned disease specialists. Among those affected were officials spearheading efforts against current measles and Ebola outbreaks.

These layoffs were part of a broad federal reduction initiative mandated by President Donald Trump amid the ongoing government shutdown.

More than 1,000 CDC employees received termination emails on Friday in what was the largest mass dismissal in the agency’s history.

But just one day later on Saturday federal health officials were scrambling to reverse what they admitted were ‘erroneous’ pink slips sent to key divisions on the front lines of global health defense, as reported by The Washington Post. 

Insiders within the agency revealed that the unexpected reduction-in-force notices severely impacted essential departments focused on infectious disease monitoring, outbreak management, vaccine strategy, and even employee safety.

Entire units were temporarily dismantled including CDC’s Global Health Center, its immunization leadership, and the elite Epidemic Intelligence Service, whose so-called ‘disease detectives’ are deployed worldwide to confront viral threats.

By Saturday afternoon, a senior federal health official speaking on the condition of anonymity confirmed that some layoffs were sent ‘in error’ and would be reversed, specifically for those working on measles, Ebola, and global outbreak coordination.

The official did not specify how many employees would be reinstated, or how quickly the reversal notices would reach them.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been thrown into chaos after mistakenly issuing layoff notices to some of its most experienced disease experts, including officials leading responses to active measles and Ebola outbreaks

Supporters of the CDC rally outside a CDC campus during a meeting of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in Chamblee, Georgia

‘These dismissals included people currently leading critical public health operations,’ said Debra Houry, the CDC’s former chief medical officer, who resigned in August over what she described as the Trump administration’s ‘politicization of science.’

Houry said roughly 1,250 employees received notices, adding that many of those emails went to scientists whose work was indispensable to U.S. health security.

‘Some of the best-trained epidemiologists in the world were told they no longer had a job,’ she said.

Among those who initially received layoff notices, according to multiple agency insiders, was a senior official with nearly three decades of experience overseeing epidemic response efforts involving Ebola, Marburg virus, and mpox in Africa. 

The unnamed career public servant who has led multi-agency task forces spanning a dozen outbreaks.

Another dismissed group included the 2023 and 2024 classes of the Epidemic Intelligence Service, who are typically the first responders when a novel disease emerges. 

Two were preparing deployment to an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo when their termination emails arrived.

The leadership of CDC’s Global Health Center – including the entire office of its director and six international regional offices – was also ‘wiped out’ before some of those cuts were hastily walked back, according to Houry.

The layoffs were made as part of a sweeping federal purge ordered by President Donald Trump during the ongoing government shutdown

A sign reading ‘measles testing’ is seen as an outbreak in Gaines County, Texas, has raised concerns over its spread to other parts of the state, in Seminole, Texas

Morale at the CDC has plummeted. Several top scientists also resigned earlier this year, citing political interference

‘When you eliminate those teams, you’re essentially blinding the country to what’s happening overseas,’ she said. ‘These are the people who spot a threat before it reaches our borders.’

The CDC purge was part of a larger federal layoff initiative announced on Friday, when the Trump administration began cutting more than 4,000 government positions across multiple departments, far exceeding the standard furloughs typical of government shutdowns.

The White House budget office said the mass firings were meant to ‘rein in growth’ and eliminate ‘wasteful and duplicative entities.’ 

Health and Human Services spokesman Andrew Nixon defended the cuts, saying all employees receiving notices were ‘designated non-essential’ and that the moves align with the president’s ‘Make America Healthy Again’ agenda.

But even some Republicans recoiled at the scope of the purge. 

Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, called the dismissals ‘completely unnecessary and reckless,’ while Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said they were ‘poorly timed’ and ‘punitive toward the federal workforce.’

The layoffs follow a series of devastating blows to the CDC this year, including the public firing of Director Susan Monarez in August and a violent shooting attack on its Atlanta headquarters, in which a gunman motivated by vaccine conspiracy theories killed a police officer and sprayed bullets into multiple buildings.

People demonstrate outside the main campus of the CDC Atlanta, Georgia. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. laid off thousands of employees across multiple agencies on Friday, as part of an overhaul announced in March

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the blame for the layoffs rested with Trump

Morale has plummeted. Several top scientists including Demetre Daskalakis, former director of the CDC’s Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases resigned earlier this year, citing political interference. 

Daskalakis compared the agency’s latest structural purge to ‘deleting the operating system of a computer.’

‘The hardware and software are there, but nothing can function without that core,’ he said. ‘I fear what will happen with the next outbreak or human-generated biological threat.’

His former division, responsible for immunizations, influenza surveillance, and respiratory virus tracking, was among those that received termination notices on Friday.

The firings also hit the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) — the agency’s flagship scientific publication that has guided public health decision-making for more than 70 years. 

Officials said those layoffs were later determined to be the result of a ‘miscoding,’ though by Saturday the editor-in-chief and several staff members had not yet received confirmation their jobs were safe.

Cases of Measles are on the rise in the US. More than 1,500 cases have been confirme  so far this year. Pictured, Priscilla Luna holds her daughter Avery Dahl, 3, while she gets the MMR jab

The MMWR, which was suspended for the first time ever in January amid the administration’s freeze on external communications, is relied upon by hospitals, clinics, and researchers worldwide for up-to-date disease data and policy recommendations. 

The disruption comes amid an alarming resurgence of measles across the United States, which has reached its highest level in 33 years, with over 1,500 cases recorded – many in under-vaccinated communities across Texas, New Mexico, and the Arizona-Utah border. 

Officials fear that firing epidemiologists at the height of this outbreak could cripple containment efforts.

Even with some layoffs now being reversed, insiders say the damage has already been done. 

Many employees fear the rehirings will be selective and politically motivated.

‘This was an act of chaos disguised as cost-cutting,’ said one senior health policy adviser. ‘You can’t simply erase the nation’s disease defenses and hope to rebuild them overnight.’