Staffing reductions across U.S. federal health agencies-including the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)-pose a significant threat to public health, according to the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA). The dismissal of thousands of staff is a massive loss of expertise and interruption to life-saving outbreak monitoring, disease investigations, and research.
A strong, well-trained, and dynamic healthcare and public health workforce is essential to effectively addressing the nation's clinical and public health needs.
Hospitals and healthcare facilities will struggle to control infectious threats without the collaborative relationship with scientists and disease investigators at federal scientific and public health agencies. These mass layoffs from within the federal workforce may lead to increased preventable healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), longer hospital stays, greater antimicrobial resistance, and higher mortality rates-many of which will lead to a higher burden on the cost to deliver care. Many of these federal staff members have demonstrated success in research, community outreach, infection prevention, vaccination efforts, and public education, which all have a vital role in creating a healthier America. Their engagement with non-healthcare entities local communities and the media ensures accurate scientific information reaches the public.
While these layoffs are framed as Federal cost-saving measures, eliminating personnel and creating unfixable gaps in research and disease monitoring will lead to individual harms and increase healthcare costs.
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