CDC rehires over 400 people on infectious disease and environmental health teams
Another federal healthcare agency is rehiring workers after the staffing purge from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) left critical functions undermanned.
According to an internal email seen by Politico, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is reinstating more than 400 previously fired employees from various divisions within the organization.
The outlet reported that the email, which was sent by “CDC leadership,” announced the rehires on Wednesday. It’s assumed these individuals have received return-to-work notices; however, it’s unclear when they will officially be back in the office.
Around 200 of those employees are part of the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention, Politico confirmed. Roughly 130 will be returning to the National Center for Environmental Health, and the remaining callback staff will be sent to various departments in the agency, including those that work in health statistics, outbreak analytics, human resources and more.
Notably, Fox News was the first to report the news, citing a source from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) who stated that the number of CDC workers returning to their posts is actually more than 450.
Regardless of the specifics, Politico said the move represents the largest number of employees to be rehired by the CDC since the DOGE firings, which happened largely between February and May.
Employment whiplash and pending lawsuit
It’s been a chaotic time for federal workers. After being laid off by DOGE in February, over 5,000 people at HHS and Veterans Affairs were invited back in March. Many of them were fired again during a “dramatic restructuring” announced by the organization, which impacted some 10,000 individuals.
Notably, in May, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was forced by a court order to rehire staff working to answer Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, because the agency was found to be unable to respond within a reasonable timeframe due to low staffing.
Currently a cohort of fired HHS workers is suing the agency and DOGE, citing dubious methodology used for productivity-based firings that ended up citing false information. The fired workers argue that, given how employee data is stored in disparate locations, termination notices should have been double-checked for accuracy. However, the plaintiffs allege DOGE failed to do that.
That case has yet to move forward.
Chad is an award-winning writer and editor with over 15 years of experience working in media. He has a decade-long professional background in healthcare, working as a writer and in public relations.