The exterior of the CDC's campus in Chamblee. Photo: Alyssa Pointer for The Washington Post via Getty Images
The Atlanta-based CDC's workforce will lose more than 2,000 people under plans by health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to slash more than 10,000 jobs.
Why it matters: For manyAtlantans, someone in their life works at or is connected to the CDC. The agency's presence here helped establish Atlanta's international profile and its employees have helped build communities.
Cutting so many jobs would further strain the thousands of employees who protect public health and prevent (or prepare for) the next pandemic.
Driving the news: The Health and Human Services said yesterday in a press release reducing its workforce from 82,000 to 62,000 full-time employees will cut costs from the agency's nearly $2 trillion budget.
According to an HHS fact sheet, about 2,400 people at the CDC will lose their jobs, "with a focus on returning to its core mission of preparing for and responding to epidemics and outbreaks."
Efforts to streamline the department will include consolidating the 28 divisions of HHS into 15 divisions, including a new Administration for a Healthy America.
It will also reduce the number of HHS regional offices from 10 to five.
Caveat: The 10,000 planned job cuts come on top of the already roughly 10,000 employees who have opted to leave since President Trump began his second term, per the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news.
State of play: A third of the CDC's management-level employees have either left or have announced they will leave the agency, the Associated Press reports.
Five of those high-level management departures were announced this week.
Zoom out: HHS is the department that houses the nation's premier health agencies and dispenses nearly 25% of the federal budget.
