HHS recalls laid-off health statistics staff
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The Trump administration on Wednesday continued to call back some of the federal health workers it fired last week, including those responsible for planning a key national survey that tracks obesity, chronic health ailments, environmental exposures and other metrics.
Why it matters: Firing those employees could have undercut Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s efforts to overhaul the food supply and address chronic disease prevalence, former staff told Axios before the layoffs were rescinded.
Context: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, administered by CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, measures rates of obesity, environmental exposures and other health concerns that the Trump administration has said it wants to prioritize.
- Its data has informed federal policies including dietary guideline updates and the push to get lead out of paint and gasoline, according to past staff.
State of play: All eight civilian staff on the planning branch for the survey received layoff notices Friday, according to its former branch chief David Woodwell, who retired earlier this year, and others with knowledge.
- The staff not only decides what information needs to be collected in annual surveys but works with contractors collecting data in the field to ensure accuracy, Woodwell said.
- While the size of the staff is small, its absence would have limited CDC's ability to collect accurate health and nutrition information, several former employees told Axios.
- "Like a Jenga game, you take out the key pieces and the whole thing comes tumbling down," Jennifer Schoendorf, who retired last year serving as NCHS's director of research and methodology, said before the layoffs were reversed.
HHS confirmed to Axios on Wednesday that the staffers were told they would not be terminated, but didn't elaborate.
- HHS sent out about 1,760 layoff notices on Friday when it only intended to fire 982 employees, according to a court filing from the administration.
- The excess termination notices were the result of "data discrepancies and processing errors," per the filing.
- Staff in other, higher-profile CDC offices, like those who investigate disease outbreaks, also received layoff notices and then had those notices reversed.
Zoom out: Kennedy has made it clear that improving the American diet and limiting environmental exposures is a priority for him. Trump administration officials have also said many times that HHS will promote "gold standard" science.
- Researchers familiar with NCHS's work said they couldn't square those ideals with the decision to target its staff.
- "You can't have gold standard science without having gold standard data to support it," Schoendorf said. "You actually need the foundational numbers and the foundational data to evaluate that science and to frame the science."
