ATLANTA, GEORGIA - AUGUST 06: A view of the sign of Center for Disease Control headquarters is seen in Atlanta, Georgia, United States on August 06, 2022. (Photo by Nathan Posner/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Washington D.C. – In a quiet reversal of a sweeping round of layoffs, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reinstating more than 400 employees who had previously received termination notices. The order to return to work is the most significant reinstatement effort to date amid ongoing turbulence at the nation’s top public health agency.
The decision comes after a wave of layoffs in April that affected approximately 2,400 CDC staff members—roughly one in six employees. The cuts came as part of a broad reorganization under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), led by Trump administration appointees. Many of the affected staff were scientists and analysts working in areas such as infectious disease, environmental health, and public data systems. DOGE shuttered entire programs or hollowed them out, including those dedicated to smoking cessation, lead poisoning prevention, gun violence research, and air quality monitoring.
Of those reinstated this week, nearly half worked in the CDC’s National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention, while around a third were from the National Center for Environmental Health. These staff include scientists responsible for tracking sexually transmitted infections and researchers working in labs dedicated to mitigating lead poisoning—both considered vital to safeguarding vulnerable communities.
The reinstatements offer a glimmer of stability for the agency’s battered workforce but do little to address the broader erosion of trust and infrastructure that has followed the mass layoffs.
Federal judges have intervened in some cases, ordering a halt to layoffs. But HHS has not explained its criteria for the terminations—or the subsequent reinstatements. Nor has it clarified how it plans to maintain the country’s public health functions with a workforce that remains fractured.
Spokesperson Andrew Nixon maintained that the administration remains committed to “protecting essential services.” But for many public health workers, the damage has already been done. Entire offices, like the CDC’s Freedom of Information Act department, remain closed. Programs focused on both chronic and infectious disease face staffing shortages that advocates warn could have long-term consequences for the health of millions.
For now, 400 reinstatements provide relief for some, but for many more, the uncertainty remains.
