Among the people who were initially fired and then brought back were leaders in the Global Health Center, including all six of the CDC’s regional offices around the world; the team that produces the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report; and some of the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS), known as “disease detectives.”    

The EIS are typically the first responders in an outbreak.  

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 2883, which represents workers at the CDC’s Atlanta headquarters, said HHS fired more than 1,300 CDC federal employees during the government shutdown, citing retaliatory reasons for their removal.   

The Trump administration said in court filings Friday that about 4,200 federal employees across seven different agencies would begin receiving reduction in force notices (RIFs). An estimated 1,100 to 1,200 employees from the Department of Health and Human Services are expected to be affected.  

But within 24 hours of receipt of the original RIF notices, the union said around 700 employees received emails rescinding their terminations. The administration claimed these employees were “mistakenly” placed on notice because of a coding error.   

The notices were emailed shortly after 9 p.m. on a holiday weekend. The notices were sent even as the human resources division had been furloughed as part of the shutdown.  

“There’s still great staff there. What I would just say is there’s no strong, stable, scientific leadership for them at the top,” said Deb Houry, formerly CDC’s chief medical officer before she resigned in protest in August. 

Houry said the agency’s entire Washington office will not be rehired. Nor will employees of the office of the director of the center for injury prevention, or those at the division of violence prevention policy. 

The latest round of firings came about a month after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a congressional hearing called for “new blood” at CDC.