Veterinarians, population researchers, records officers and neuroscientists were all swept up in a chaotic series of layoffs Tuesday that effectively ended the government's health establishment as we know it.
The big picture: The sheer breadth of the cuts and reshuffling may not be apparent for weeks. But in the immediate aftermath, health care industry players and former federal workers say the workforce reductions will almost certainly affect drug approvals, low-income assistance, disease tracking and biomedical research once held up as the gold standard.
The White House is so frustrated by the lack of clear and fast communications by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s agency that it has set up a parallel press shop, five top Trump administration sources tell Axios.
Driving the news: The problem surfaced in February, after it took two days for the Health and Human Services Department to acknowledge — by tweet — that a West Texas child had become the first person to die in the measles outbreak.
A House Democrat is introducing long-shot legislation that would force billionaire Trump lieutenant Elon Musk and his staffers at DOGE to undergo routine drug testing, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) cited a Wall Street Journal report from 2024 that alleged Musk has used illegal drugs including LSD, cocaine, ecstasy, mushrooms and ketamine as the impetus for her bill.
Alabama cannot prosecute doctors and reproductive rights groups that help patients travel out of state for abortions, a federal judge ruled Monday.
Why it matters: Alabama has one of the strictest abortion bans in the country, with Monday's ruling upending threats by the state's attorney general to crack down on Alabamans' ability to travel elsewhere for the procedure.
Entire offices throughout the Department of Health and Human Services were laid off Tuesday as the agency implemented DOGE-directed job cuts and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s sweeping reorganization of the federal health bureaucracy.
Newly confirmed National Institutes of Health director Jay Bhattacharya told staff that they face challenges amid large-scale cutbacks and that he will try his best to "implement new policies humanely," according to an all-staff email sent this morning and shared with Axios by the agency.
Why it matters: The message comes days after HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a sweeping reorganization of the federal health bureaucracy, which includes laying off roughly 1,200 NIH employees.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday is due to hear a high-profile case blending patients' rights with reproductive care access, stemming from South Carolina's move to block Medicaid recipients from getting care at Planned Parenthood clinics in the state.
Why it matters: At issue is whether Medicaid patients can freely choose their provider for any service — not just reproductive care.But the case has major implications for Planned Parenthood, which derives a significant chunk of its funding from the safety net program and is the biggest provider of abortion services in the country.
