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April 2025

ROUND UP: ‘I Weep for Our Nation’: The Devastating Health Impacts Of Trump, Musk, and RFK Jr.’s Disastrous HHS Cuts

Experts, advocates and former officials continue to sound the alarm as the Trump administration slashes vital public health officials and communicators from their positions within HHS. The latest announcement included firing 10,000 employees who have been responding to infectious disease outbreaks, approving new life-saving drugs, administering critical programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and more. This comes at a time when America is facing its largest measles outbreak in decades, in addition to other public health threats. As one epidemiologist put it: “this is the darkest day that I’ve had in 50 years of public health.” In response, Protect Our Care President Brad Woodhouse issued the following statement: 

“These cuts at HHS threaten the health and safety of every American.  This is all part of the devastating war on health care the Republicans have been carrying out for years. From halting life-saving research to scrapping the departments that keep us all safe, RFK Jr., Musk, and Trump get exactly what they want while Americans will suffer, get sick, and die.”

COMMENTARY

Marisa Kabas, independent journalist: “As news of Reductions in Force (RIFs) rapidly rolled in Tuesday, it was apparent that after the initial dust settled, it would be impossible to clearly see just how thorough the Trump administration’s gutting had been without having requisite information. This wasn’t just trimming the fat—they were killing the whole animal and stripping it for parts.” [The Handbasket, 4/2/25]

Dr. Eric Topol, Director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute: “It’s like a Fauci fixation. So many of these people are just dedicated, they really want to do good and now they’re losing their jobs senselessly.” [Politico, 4/2/25]

Peter Staley, HIV/AIDS activist: “It seems especially targeted against HIV, and also vaccines again. [Kennedy’s] anti-vax views, his AIDS denialism, his fingerprints are all over this. And I weep for our nation’s ability to fight infectious diseases.” [Politico, 4/2/25]

Adriane Fugh-Berman, Professor of Pharmacology at Georgetown University Medical Center: “Drug companies must love the defanging of the F.D.A. The Trump administration is destroying an agency crucial to public health.” [The New York Times, 4/3/25]

Michael Osterholm, an Epidemiologist and Director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy: “This is the darkest day that I’ve had in 50 years of public health. [It’s] almost a way of punishing them for what they have done. I can’t find anything in that effort that makes us better prepared.” [Politico, 4/2/25]

Gillian SteelFisher, Principal Research Scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health:[The layoffs are] a profound loss for public health, and for the public’s health. “Good public health is a partnership with the public. It’s about helping people make decisions and take actions that protect them and their loved ones, and to do that, fundamentally, you have to be able to talk to people.” [The New York Times, 4/2/25]

Chanapa Tantibanchachai, Former F.D.A. Spokeswoman:It’s doing a disservice to the public. It’s not in service of ‘radical transparency’ like Secretary Kennedy says. It’s the complete opposite.” [The New York Times, 4/2/25]

Dustin Hays, Former Chief of Science Communications at the National Eye Institute: “I think this is an egregious misstep by the government, and I don’t think they’re even realizing how long it takes to build an enterprise like N.I.H.” [The New York Times, 4/2/25]

Katherine Eban, Special Correspondent at Vanity Fair: “The slashing was so wide and deep that it can be hard to get a handle on just how much public health expertise was lost yesterday. The affected offices at the FDA may not be household names, but they perform critical work that protects every American and helps shape the regulatory decisions of manufacturers and foreign health agencies around the world, which rely on the FDA’s expertise.” [Vanity Fair, 4/2/25]

Peter Marks, Former FDA Vaccine Official:It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.” [Vanity Fair, 4/2/25]

Anonymous FDA Employee: The people making these decisions, they are clueless about what the FDA does.” [Vanity Fair, 4/2/25]

Robert Otto Valdez, Former Director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ): “The cuts were largely in areas that are, quite honestly, catastrophic for the American health care system. My heart is very heavy with what this means for the American public, for the health of our neighbors, our children, our grandchildren, our parents.” [STAT, 4/2/25]

Robert Otto Valdez, Former Director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ): “The lack of transparency is extraordinary and that raises many, many concerns because lots of damage can be done behind closed doors when the public and the press can’t see what’s going on. That’s exactly what authoritarian regimes do. [STAT, 4/2/25]

Anonymous Former Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Grant Reviewer: “In a broader sense, if we lose this work, we’re losing, as a country, the ability to be able to effectively say that our health care system is safe, that it is top quality, that it is affordable.” [STAT, 4/2/25]

Anonymous Former ASPE Employee: “The people who decided on this kind of reorganization — they either don’t know what ASPE does, or they do know and this is very intentional. They don’t want researchers with this much independence answering questions and poking around with data. They want, I’m guessing, an organization that’s going to be more willing to fall in line with the priorities of HHS and the administration.” [STAT, 4/2/25]

Former Member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Assisted Reproductive Technology Surveillance Team:  “It’s surprising to me. President Trump said he was the fertility president. How does cutting this program support that?” [NBC News, 4/2/25]

Micah Hill, President of the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology: “The depth of expertise held by CDC personnel will be difficult to replace. In many ways, the American public health system has been the global leader, and we are now in danger of throwing that away and doing so in a manner that may be very difficult to recover from.” [NBC News, 4/2/25]

Senior Official, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ): “To gut a 300-member, $500 million agency for no other reason than to placate a need to see blood seems really shortsighted.” [KFF, 4/3/25]

Hardeep Singh at Baylor College of Medicine: “We need safety research to protect our patients from harms in health care. No organization in the world does more for that than AHRQ.” [KFF, 4/3/25]

Stephen Parente, Finance Professor at the University of Minnesota: “[W]e’re going to lose a culture of research that is measured, thoughtful, and provides a channel for young investigators to make their marks.” [KFF, 4/3/25]

Mitch Zeller, Former Director of the FDA’s Tobacco Center: “Regardless of one’s views on the performance of the center, I think anybody should be concerned that this is going to make what was already a challenging job for the center much more difficult. This is destroying prevention efforts when it comes to the leading cause of preventable disease and death. […] There now is no expertise left at the center to do forward-looking policy, whether it takes the form of regulations or guidance documents.” [STAT, 4/3/25]

Yolanda C. Richardson, Head of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids: It is inexplicable and especially harmful that these cuts are coming at a time when the FDA should be redoubling its enforcement efforts against the many illegal, flavored e-cigarette products that have flooded our country from overseas and put kids at risk.” [STAT, 4/3/25]

Kathleen Sebelius, Former HHS Secretary: “HHS deals with Americans from birth to death. There is absolutely no way you can lose 25% of the workforce without directly affecting Americans across this country[This includes] research and science at NIH, which is the gold standard of the world.” [CBS News, 4/2/25]

Anjee Davis, CEO of Fight Colorectal Cancer: “We’re scared that these blanket mandates could erase decades of progress fighting cancer. This isn’t about politics. It’s about protecting the progress we’ve fought so hard to achieve in cancer care and research over the past two decades.” [CBS News, 4/2/25]

Dr. Kimryn Rathmell, Former Director of the National Cancer Institute: “Discoveries are going to be delayed, if they ever happen.” [CBS News, 4/2/25]

Dr. Céline Gounder, Editor-at-Large at KFF Health News: “We’ve already seen China and European countries trying to recruit our scientists, because scientists here are concerned about their job opportunities. I just heard of a few from Yale who just left for Toronto…You have students who are worried about going into research, because they don’t know that there will be jobs. […] [These cuts are] very concerning, both in terms of the immediate impacts on health care, public health, and the longer term impacts on whether we will maintain our leadership in the health space.” [CBS News, 4/2/25]

Michael Totoraitis, Milwaukee Health Commissioner: “[Lead contamination] is just another example of how quickly federal policy can affect local on the ground work. I think, for a lot of our city residents who are following the lead crisis here in our schools, when we continue to update everybody, this is yet another complication to the work that we’re doing.” [CNN, 4/3/25]

Lori Tremmel Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials: “If you’re cutting off one leg off a three-legged stool at its knees, the stool is going to fall over. It’s going to cripple and fall down. And I’m worried about our governmental public health system overall, when we are losing positions in key health agencies that support really crucial functions all day, every day, to keep people safe and healthy in counties and cities across this country.” [CNN, 4/3/25]

CDC Employee, Lead Poisoning Prevention and Surveillance Branch: “We no longer have lead experts…So we won’t be able to provide that service at this time.” [CNN, 4/3/25]

Ernest Hopkins, Senior Strategist & Adviser for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation: “San Francisco and the region generally are about to be hit pretty seriously by the process that the HHS reorganization has unleashed…In a place like San Francisco that has been on the cutting edge, to have this kind of disruption — where the federal government, your partner, abruptly steps away — it completely puts everything at risk. San Francisco has done a very good job over the years of backfilling cuts at the federal level for HIV programs. But we’ve never experienced anything of this magnitude.” [San Francisco Chronicle, 4/2/25]

Carl Schmid, Founder of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute: “HIV has been a disease of disparities. And so you’ve got to prevent where the virus is, and you’ve got to treat the people who have it, no matter who they are.” [San Francisco Chronicle, 4/2/25]

Chuan Teng, Chief Executive of PRC (Formerly Known As the Positive Resource Center): “It’s a little bit difficult to draw the clear connection of what is being cut and how it will impact services, because it’s all happening real time right now. Part of the challenge is just the chaos. I don’t know if that’s by design but it feels like it. Just the level of uncertainty alone is causing a lot of issues.” [San Francisco Chronicle, 4/2/25]

Jorge Reyes Salinas, Equality California: “The progress that we’ve made is still very fragile, and these cuts really put at serious risk these efforts. In cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco, agencies are already working with very limited resources and any reduction in funding could mean catastrophe. […] The path to ending the HIV epidemic isn’t automatic. It’s been a long process that we’ve been fighting for years. We’re talking about dismantling all of these efforts quickly and reducing decades of hard-won gains.” [San Francisco Chronicle, 4/2/25]

Dr. Philip Huang, Director & Health Authority for the Dallas County Health and Human Services Department: “I just had to tell our commissioners this morning that we’ve had to cancel over 50 different clinics in our community. […] That’s very short-sighted and not understanding of the way public health works. Being prepared for Covid helps build our capacity to be able to respond to other issues.” [NBC News, 4/1/25]

Dr. David Kessler, Former FDA Commissioner and White House Adviser on Pandemic Response under President Biden: “I think it’s [the latest round of layoffs] devastating, haphazard, thoughtless and chaotic. I think they need to be rescinded.” [The New York Times, 4/3/25]

ROUND UP: ‘People Will Die’: The Devastating Health Impacts Of Trump, Musk, and RFK Jr.’s Disastrous HHS Cuts

Over the last few weeks, the Trump administration has slashed vital health programs that the American people rely on. The latest announcement included firing 10,000 employees who have been responding to infectious disease outbreaks, approving new life-saving drugs, administering critical programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and more. This comes at a time when America is facing its largest measles outbreak in decades, in addition to other public health threats. Experts have made it clear these cuts will have devastating impacts across the country. In response, Protect Our Care President Brad Woodhouse issued the following statement: 

“Donald Trump is doing everything he can to sabotage American health care and rip away lifesaving benefits from millions of Americans. From halting life-saving research to limiting the ability of critical departments to do their jobs, the effects of these draconian cuts are already being felt across the country. As a result, more Americans will get sick and more will die.”

COMMENTARY

Dr. Robert Califf, Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner: “The FDA as we’ve known it is finished, with most of the leaders with institutional knowledge and a deep understanding of product development and safety no longer employed. I believe that history will see this a huge mistake.” [LinkedIn, 4/1/25]

Robert Califf: “If we let down our guard and don’t do a good job reviewing, we’re going to unleash some things that are really dangerous into the population. Unless there’s some super plan, there’s going to be an effect on safety, because it takes whole teams of people to monitor safety of products, and the timetables for product review will probably be delayed.” [CNN, 4/1/25

Peggy Hamburg, Former FDA Commissioner: “Obviously this is horrifying, thoughtless and very short-sighted. … These cuts/RIFS will be devastating to an agency that is regarded as the gold standard around the world. [STAT, 4/1/25

Former CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen: “These cuts to agency experts and programs leave our country less safe, less prepared and without the necessary talent and resources to respond to health threats.” [CNN, 4/1/25

Don Berwick, Former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services: “While funding levels have ebbed and flowed in the past, the Trump administration cuts [are] entirely unprecedented and vicious beyond any precedent. … We’re injuring the future severely. … This is taking down the research structure of America. [The Boston Globe, 4/1/25]

Tom Frieden, Former Director of the CDC and President and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives: “The CDC cuts announced Tuesday threaten America’s health, safety, and economy. Despite claims of efficiency, these cuts target proven programs that prevent disease and save lives — and as a result, Americans will be sicker and face increased health care costs. The government’s goal should not be to hit an arbitrary number of jobs eliminated, but to focus on the number of illnesses and premature deaths prevented.” [STAT, 4/1/25

Mitch Zeller, Former FDA Tobacco Chief: “If you make it virtually impossible to create and draft policy, then you are eviscerating the role of the center. … From a public health perspective it makes absolutely no sense.” [Associated Press, 4/1/25

Former Administration for Community Living Employee Matt Cutler: “I think people need to ask themselves, did the money that’s going to their communities arrive sooner and more accurately as a result of this? And if not, they need to start asking questions and holding people accountable.” [Roll Call, 4/1/25]

Alison Barkoff, Former Director for Administration on Community Living and Director of Health Law Program at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health: “The programs that ACL implements improve the lives of literally tens of millions of older adults, people with disabilities and their families and caregivers. … There’s no way to have these RIFs and not impact the programs and the people who rely on them. [NPR, 4/1/25

Sam Bagenstos, Former General Counsel of HHS and Professor of Law at the University of Michigan: “It’s really hard to comprehend the effect on so many people who have worked so hard to ensure public health and have suffered for it. … It’s just going to be absolutely terrible for public health. [STAT, 4/1/25

Emily Erbelding, Director of the Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases: “Everybody has been waiting for the other shoe to drop, so I just thought, ‘well, this is the shoe.’ […] It’s going to hurt science for a whole generation. [STAT, 4/1/25

Andrew Germain, Director of Fiscal Operations and Accountability for the Administration for Children and Families: “For the communities that need the funding and need the support of the federal office, they’re going to be without those resources. … You’re talking about individuals who rely on crisis assistance from the LIHEAP program to keep the power on, whether it be for a medical reason or some other potentially life-threatening purpose. [NBC News, 4/1/25

Walter Koroshetz, National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System Director: “To get rid of 11 of our senior PIs … we’re hoping that’s a mistake, because we can’t figure out why they would want to do that. … The labs affected by the layoffs include those involved in clinical trials as well as preclinical studies. It is unclear, NIH staff said, what the plans are for the data they’ve accumulated or what will happen to patients involved in ongoing trials.” [WIRED, 4/1/25]  

Dr. Michelle Tarver, Director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health:Your work has been critical to advancing medical device innovation, ensuring patient safety, and upholding the public trust in what we do. … You will be deeply missed in the impact of your absence will be felt far and wide.” [STAT, 4/1/25

Alex Saint, Health Communications Specialist at the FDA: People need to know the action that they need to take to keep themselves safe and healthy, and if you don’t have any way to communicate that to the public, people are on their own,” [STAT, 4/1/25

Indian Health Service Employee: “I find it insulting. … The way it’s presented as an option to folks makes an IHS job seem even more undesirable.” [STAT, 4/1/25

FDA Official: “The food compliance officers and animal drug reviewers survived, but they have no one at the comms office to put out a safety alert, no admin staff to pay external labs to test products.” [CBS News, 4/1/25

Former CDC Employee: “It’s so chaotic. The amount of knowledge that is being purged today at CDC is just tragic.They are firing whole organizational units. These are people that have 30 years of service, people with children, veterans, there was no thought put into trying to retain people that have institutional knowledge. […] Most of the money at CDC does not fund staff, it funds money going out to states, cities, tribes, public health departments, community organizations. So when you’re shutting down the lead program, you’re shutting down funding that supports tracking whether lead is in the water or not. Programs that have been around for decades [are] just gone.” [Rolling Stone, 4/2/25

Former Reproductive Health Division Staffer: “You don’t expect your whole program to be wiped out. … Without CDC’s contraception guidelines, more women will die as pregnancy is the most dangerous thing a 20 or 30 year old will do in the U.S.” [Rolling Stone, 4/2/25

Former CDC Staffer: “Shitshow is an understatement for what just happened at the CDC. … What’s especially concerning is that the entire CDC FOIA office has been fired. Without a FOIA team now the American people have significantly less transparency into what the CDC is doing and puts the agency at significant legal risk for not complying with FOIA requests for information.” [Rolling Stone, 4/2/25]

Michael T. Osterholm, Director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy: “Today was simply a tragedy. … There is so much intellectual capital that literally got swept under the rug today in this country, and we are going to pay a price for this for years to come.” [The New York Times, 4/1/25

Wendy Armstrong, Director of Infectious Diseases at the University of Colorado: “We’ve had a lot of devastating days, but this really is unfathomable. … It’s astounding, it will affect patients with all kinds of different kinds of infections, and Americans will suffer, and people will die, and that’s a horrible thing to see coming.” [The Bulwark, 4/1/25

Jade Pagkas-Bather, Infectious Disease Doctor at the University of Chicago: “We’re going to have patients die…Unnecessary, preventable death. […] This is not just something that impacts people in the ivory tower. This is not just something that impacts people who are physicians, or scientists, or academics. This is coming for you.” [WIRED, 4/1/25

Joseph Cherabie, Physician & Assistant Professor at Washington University in St. Louis: “It will be catastrophic. We’re still seeing young people coming in with new HIV diagnoses, sometimes advanced HIV. Our efforts are largely dependent on these federal grants. … We use them to make sure that we are able to distribute HIV testing equipment. We use them to make sure that we can get information and data on how much PrEP is being distributed, how many HIV diagnoses we have, how many HIV tests we’re giving out. If we lose that, then we’re moving around in the dark.” [WIRED, 4/1/25

Katy Kozhimannil, Health Policy Researcher at the University of Minnesota: “I am truly concerned about the potential impacts. With the loss of staff that support PRAMS, we risk a longer delay or loss of this important data resource for studying maternal health.” [STAT, 4/1/25

Marian Jarlenski, Professor of Health Policy at the University of Pittsburgh: “I don’t know how else to say it, this data system is needed. It’s not an option. It’s part of having a functional public health system.” [STAT, 4/1/25

Ezekiel Emanuel, Oncologist and Bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania: “It has fueled many of the breakthroughs from discovering the DNA code for each amino acid to the hepatitis C virus. … Dismantling it will not make America great but undercut our position as the world’s leader in science. Americans will suffer. … Diseases will not be cured and treatments will not be found. [The Bulwark, 4/1/25

Dr. Duane Wesemann, Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School and Associate Physician at Brigham and Women’s: “We’ve been hit by a wave. … The impact is devastating.” [The Boston Globe, 4/1/25]

Dr. Bruce Fischl, Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School: “We are all terrified. … Every morning when I wake up, I check to see whether our grants have been affected.” [The Boston Globe, 4/1/25]

Ariel Beccia, Instructor at the LGBTQ Health Center of Excellence at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health: “I was shocked and devastated,” said Ariel Beccia. If this continues, we are going to lose a generation of scientists. [The Boston Globe, 4/1/25]

Sharon Gilmartin, Executive Director of Safe States Alliance: “Our Indian Health Service is a really important part of our public health infrastructure, but it shouldn’t be used as a pawn when actually you should place people into the Indian Health Service that actually are meant to work with tribal nations and are confident to do so.” [STAT, 4/1/25

Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America Spokesperson Alex Schriver: “We recognize the need to find efficiencies, but it’s critical the FDA has the expertise and capacity it needs to maintain its gold standard regulatory review. … The rapid and substantial changes at FDA this week raise questions about the agency’s ability to fulfill its mission to bring new innovative medicines to patients.” [Politico, 4/1/25]

HEADLINES: HHS Cuts Are Devastating American Health Care, Wreaking Havoc Across The Country

Last week, HHS Secretary RFK Jr. announced plans to dismantle critical health care services for the American people by gutting his own department. The latest plan includes firing 10,000 employees who have been responding to infectious disease outbreaks, approving new life-saving drugs, administering critical programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and more. This comes after thousands of employees have already left HHS due to DOGE efforts to slash the federal workforce to the bone and cut the programs the American people rely on. These drastic cuts will undermine disease prevention, food inspection, and drug safety, raising the danger Americans face. 

HEADLINES

CNN: ‘It’s a Bloodbath’: Massive Wave of Job Cuts Underway at US Health Agencies.

  • “Cuts at the CDC slashed divisions that work on workplace health and safety, HIV, injury prevention, reproductive health, smoking and violence prevention, among others.”

Forbes: How The Layoff Of 10,000 Health Workers From HHS Could Affect Your Health. 

  • “Employees at the CDC are tasked with responding to infectious disease threats like measles, implementing prevention programs for potential outbreaks like bird flu and communicating effective messages to the public so Americans can stay safe. With thousands fewer employees staffing the center, the ability to monitor and contain diseases effectively could be hindered… The Food and Drug Administration, which sets safety standards for medical devices, drugs and food, will see a reduction of 3,500 workers. This degree of downsizing may slow the approval process for many lifesaving drugs and delay inspection of food processing facilities… Institutions of higher learning are already potentially facing enormous funding cuts with a cap of indirect costs to federal research grants to 15%, which translates to hundreds of millions of dollars that will not be granted to many universities.”

STAT: At CDC, Trump Administration’s Job Cuts Wipe Out Wide Array of Specialists. 

  • “In all, the CDC is expected to lose roughly 2,400 employees, or about 18% of its staff, as part of the broader cuts playing out across the Department of Health and Human Services… The Trump administration has argued the CDC’s mission had become too broad, and that it should focus squarely on infectious disease concerns… ‘We are weaker,’ said one CDC employee who did not receive a termination notice but asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals. The individual noted that the CDC is the country’s rapid response force, deployed when there are new disease threats or bioterror attacks. ‘If there was an outbreak, I would not know who is deployment-ready to get on a plane in the next 24 hours,’ this person wrote. ‘I would not know who is still left to GET people deployment-ready if they are not already up-to-date.’”

The Washington Post: Widespread Layoffs, Purge of Leadership Underway at U.S. Health Agencies. 

  • “Senior leaders across the Department of Health and Human Services were put on leave and countless other employees lost their jobs Tuesday as the Trump administration began a sweeping purge of the agencies that oversee government health programs… At the CDC, entire branches and divisions were eliminated or significantly reduced, employees said. In the Immunization Services Division, staff members who worked on vaccination education and outreach to under-vaccinated communities were among those who received notices, including one person working on the ongoing measles outbreak in Texas and New Mexico, according to two staff members who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.” 

Bloomberg: Top US Drug, Tobacco Regulators Cut as RFK Jr. Reshapes Health Agency. 

  • “The sweeping cuts also allow Kennedy to reshape the country’s health policy and communications, providing a road map for where the new health chief is directing his focus. Among the 10,000 people cut on Tuesday, some entire divisions were gutted including groups working on sexually transmitted diseases, environmental health, global health and birth defects, according to people familiar with the matter. Big swaths of the agency’s communications and federal records teams were also laid off.”

Newsweek: Here’s How RFK Jr.’s HHS Cuts Could Impact Americans. 

  • “HHS administers health insurance programs that affect nearly half the U.S. population, including Medicare and Medicaid, and regulates medical products and food. Critics warn that the scale of the cuts could jeopardize disease response capacity, scientific research, and regulatory oversight. ‘They may as well be renaming it the Department of Disease because their plan is putting lives in serious jeopardy,’ Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington, said on Friday.” 

NBC News: Widespread Job Cuts Begin at Health Agencies. 

  • “The administration made deep and wide-ranging cuts to divisions responsible for tackling HIV, improving minority health and preventing injury, such as gun violence. Jobs were eliminated at offices overseeing the approval of new drugs, providing health insurance and responding to infectious disease outbreaks. A number of lesser-known divisions — including several focused on the safety of mining workers — were cut entirely.”

Politico: Thousands Laid off as Kennedy and Musk Take Aim at Health Agencies. 

  • “Driving the cuts is Kennedy’s desire to reorient HHS to combat chronic diseases, rather than infectious ones, and root out conflicts of interest he claims have led it to approve dangerous drugs. A longtime critic of vaccination, Kennedy has accused HHS of downplaying vaccine side effects — in defiance of public health consensus that vaccines are safe.”

EXPERTS

Dr. Robert Califf, Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner: “The FDA as we’ve known it is finished, with most of the leaders with institutional knowledge and a deep understanding of product development and safety no longer employed. I believe that history will see this a huge mistake.” [LinkedIn, 04/01/25]

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, Former Trump Food and Drug Administration Commissioner: “Through a generation of congressional actions, investments in expertise and hiring, and careful policymaking, we built the FDA into the most efficient, forward-leaning drug regulatory agency in the world—and established the U.S. as the global center of biopharmaceutical innovation. Today, the cumulative  barrage on that drug-discovery enterprise, threatens to swiftly bring back those frustrating delays for American consumers, particularly affecting rare diseases and areas of significant unmet medical need.” [X, 04/01/25]

Dr. Mandy Cohen, Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director: “These cuts to agency experts and programs leave our country less safe, less prepared and without the necessary talent and resources to respond to health threats.” [NBC, 04/01/25]

Dr. Ashish Jha, Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, Former Biden Administration COVID-19 Coordinator: “We’ve never seen anything like this before. We rely on our CDC for things like tracking down disease outbreaks. We rely on NIH for research into new treatments and tests and vaccines. At this moment, whether those will continue to be effective has really been put into question. We don’t know what the implications of all of this will be. I’m worried that what we’re going to see is more people getting sick, more disease outbreaks and infrastructure that is going to be less and less capable of responding to those threats.” [NPR, 04/01/25]

Jeremy Berg, Former Director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at the NIH: “The level of cuts at NIH I am hearing about today is truly mind-boggling. I try not to be hyperbolic but this seems to be a massacre. … I honestly don’t know where this leads.” [NPR, 04/01/25]

Dr. Tom Frieden, Former Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene: “If we look at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are discussions of reducing our global work that’s really dangerous. It means that instead of finding and stopping threats where they emerge, which is less expensive, safer and more efficient, we’ll have to fight them here within the United States at greater risk and greater expense. … These are changes which not only will make the U.S. less safe, less healthy, and with higher healthcare costs, but unless these changes are reversed, they will literally cause millions of deaths around the world.” [PBS, 03/29/25]

Larry Levitt, KFF Executive Vice President for Health Policy: “The general public likely won’t feel the results of these HHS layoffs immediately. But eventually, these layoffs will affect the health information available to people, access to care and prevention, and oversight of health and social services.” [X, 04/01/25]

Dr. Craig Spencer: “Thousands of the best experts at FDA, NIH, and all across HHS are being terminated right now. These are the people who make sure the medications you and your children take are safe. These are the people who perform and oversee research on cancer, infant health, and so so so much more. These are the people who make sure new devices that physicians and patients use are effective. These are the people who keep workers safe on the job and help prevent devastating injuries for workers all around the country. These are the people who track what drugs and medications are experiencing shortages so we can adapt. These are the people who help tackle HIV and other infectious diseases, asthma, lead poisoning, and everything else that makes many Americans sick. And now, thousands of them are gone. There is no way this makes Americans healthier. We will regret this.” [X, 04/01/25]

Dr. Richard Besser, President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: “HHS has a mission to improve and protect Americans’ health and wellbeing. Its leadership should be working nonstop to ensure health is no longer a privilege but a right. Instead, they are systematically and cruelly dismantling our nation’s public health system and workforce, which threatens the health and wellbeing of everyone in America. … These are reckless, thoughtless cuts that will only make American communities less healthy and less safe. They represent an abdication of the department’s essential responsibility to promote and protect health.” [Press Release, 04/01/25]

Barbara Collura, President of RESOLVE: “It is vital that the CDC, our nation’s public health agency, employs doctors and scientists who understand infertility, a disease that impacts one in six people worldwide. Following today’s layoffs at the CDC, there will be no experts on infertility who will be able to inform public policy, brief members of Congress, publish articles and reports, and advance public awareness on the causes and treatments for infertility. RESOLVE is deeply concerned by this development and what it means for those who struggle to build their family.” [X, 04/01/25]

New Navigator Polling Shows Medicaid is “Deeply and Broadly Popular” as Republicans Try to Rip it Away

As Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) holds the Senate floor to defend Medicaid from Republican budget cuts amid Medicaid Awareness Month, new Navigator polling confirms Medicaid is “deeply” popular across the board and there is broad opposition across party lines to any cuts to Medicaid. Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are pursuing nearly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid so they can give billionaires another tax cut. If they get their way, millions could lose their health care. Poll after poll confirms this is completely out of step with the American people. Here’s the latest:

Medicaid is Widely Popular. While Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are trying to slash hundreds of billions from the country’s largest health insurance program, 77 percent of voters view Medicaid favorably, including 70 percent of Republicans. 

Americans Overwhelmingly Oppose Cuts to Medicaid. 75 percent of Americans are strongly or somewhat opposed to cuts to Medicaid. 59 percent of Americans, or nearly every three in five, strongly oppose any cuts. And 60 percent of voters, or three in five, know someone who relies on Medicaid for health care coverage, underscoring the fact that the consequences of Republican cuts to Medicaid would touch nearly every household in America.

FACT SHEET: Seniors and Their Families Count On Medicaid, But Republicans Want to Slash It to Give Tax Breaks to the Rich

Week One of Medicaid Awareness Month Focuses on the Importance of Medicaid to Older Adults As Republicans Pursue Draconian Cuts 

This April marks the eighth annual Medicaid Awareness Month. Medicaid is the largest health insurance program in the country, providing health care for over 70 million Americans, including 7.2 million seniors. It provides essential coverage for expenses like long-term care, medical equipment, hospitalization, and prescription drugs. As the single largest payer to long-term care services in the country, middle-class families depend on Medicaid to help take care of their loved ones. Six in 10 nursing home residents count on Medicaid for the long-term care they need – that’s 5.6 million older Americans.

But Trump and Republicans in Congress are determined to gut Medicaid in order to give billionaires another tax cut, even if it means dismantling the health care American families rely on. The GOP budget paves the way for slashing $880 billion from Medicaid, putting the health care of tens of millions of Americans at risk. For seniors, who often live on fixed incomes and face high medical expenses, losing their health care coverage would be catastrophic. The consequences of such severe cuts to Medicaid would touch nearly every household in America. Families would be forced to choose between seeing a doctor, filling a prescription, or putting food on the table. Without Medicaid, millions may be forced to leave a job to provide full-time care for an aging parent who can no longer afford their nursing home. Recent polling found there is broad opposition across party lines to any cuts to Medicaid, with 67 percent saying Congress should increase spending on Medicaid or keep it about the same.

During Medicaid Awareness Month, Protect Our Care is continuing its “Hands Off Medicaid” campaign with theme weeks to underscore the importance of Medicaid across the country. Alongside partners, lawmakers, and other advocates, Protect Our Care is working to defend Medicaid from the Republican-led plan to slash funding to pay for another round of tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations. 

By The Numbers

  • Millions of Seniors & Older Americans Rely On Medicaid Coverage. 7.2 million Americans over 65 are enrolled in Medicaid and more than 11 million Americans ages 50 to 64 have health coverage through Medicaid – many thanks to the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion.
  • 6 to 8 Million Older Adults Live Below The Federal Poverty Level. For millions of seniors and older Americans on fixed incomes, Medicaid is a lifeline.
  • Medicaid Is the Single Largest Payer To Long-Term Care Services Nationwide. As seniors age, long-term care services become more essential. Medicaid serves about 70 percent of seniors who will need some form of long-term care in their lives.
  • 2.7 Million People Would Gain Coverage If Remaining States Expanded Medicaid. This includes 1.4 million people who are in the Medicaid coverage gap and an additional 1.3 million uninsured people with incomes between 100 and 138 percent of the federal poverty line who are eligible, but not enrolled in Marketplace plans. 17 percent, approximately 238,000, of the uninsured in the coverage gap are people aged 55-64 who face increased health care needs.
  • Medicaid Pays For 62 Percent Of Long-Term Care Residents In Nursing Homes. Medicaid covers nursing home bills for over 60 percent of residents in nursing homes. In 2019, this totaled over $50 billion. The median private nursing home room cost over $100,000 yearly in 2025.
  • 12 Million Medicare Beneficiaries Also Have Medicaid Coverage. Nearly 8 million of the dual eligible Medicare-Medicaid beneficiaries are “full benefit” Medicaid enrollees who have access to a range of Medicaid benefits, not otherwise covered by Medicare.

Seniors And Older Adults Depend On Medicaid For Affordable, Comprehensive Care. As of 2023, approximately 2.98 million older adults are uninsured. Older Americans often have more complex health issues, requiring additional medical attention that is costly, pushing care out of reach. For seniors on Medicare, Medicaid helps fill many of the gaps in Medicare coverage, such as transportation to medical appointments and medical equipment. 

Middle Class Families Rely on Medicaid for Peace of Mind and Financial Security. Millions of middle class families across the country depend on Medicaid, whether it’s for an aging parent, a disabled child needing special care, or a child who can’t be covered under their parent’s health plans but doesn’t make enough yet to afford insurance on their own. Studies show increased Medicaid access leads to middle class families having an increased amount of money in their savings and retirement accounts and are significantly more likely to never miss a mortgage payment. Without Medicaid, middle class families would be more likely to drain their savings, lose their homes, and not save for retirement. 

Medicaid Supplements Medicare Coverage For Millions Of Seniors. 12 million seniors are eligible Medicare-Medicaid dual beneficiaries. Nearly 8 million are “full benefit” Medicaid enrollees who have access to a range of Medicaid benefits, not otherwise covered by Medicare. Nearly half of dual enrollees are seniors of color and over half of dual enrollees suffer from long-term disabilities. 

Medicaid Helps Seniors And Older Americans Stay Retired And Out Of Poverty. Many seniors and older Americans survive on low incomes or have chronic health conditions that prohibit them from working. Medicaid allows individuals living on fixed incomes or who have chronic health problems to continue getting the care they need by filling the gaps in their Medicare coverage without having to worry about choosing between food and housing or their health. Medicaid has long been considered one of the most effective anti-poverty programs in the nation, and its expansion has significantly improved health outcomes for seniors and older adults. In a nation where 4 in 10 adults report having medical debt, Medicaid serves as a lifeline not only for health care, but for economic stability as Americans age. A January 2021 study from Health Affairs found that the ACA helped reduce income inequality across the board, but much more dramatically in Medicaid expansion states.

Low-Income Seniors With Medicare Depend On Medicaid For Long-Term Care. It is estimated that 70 percent of seniors will need long-term care at some point and 62 percent of nursing facility residents utilize Medicaid to receive their care. Medicaid is a critical provider of home- and community-based care that are essential to keep loved ones at home with their families and neighbors. Without Medicaid, many seniors would not be able to afford these needed services with Medicare alone. 80 percent of individuals in nursing facilities covered by Medicaid were dually eligible, with Medicaid covering costs once Medicare benefits have been depleted. 

Hundreds of Thousands of Seniors Are Stuck In The Medicaid Coverage Gap. 10 states have refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), stranding many seniors with low incomes in the Medicaid coverage gap. As a result, over 407,000 older Americans with incomes below the federal poverty level are ineligible for Medicaid or ACA marketplace assistance in these states. Over half of these individuals reside in Texas or Florida, and seniors from at least 25 percent of those in the Medicaid coverage gap in Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida. 

This Medicaid Awareness Month, We’re Exposing the Republican Scheme to Slash Medicaid to Fund Tax Breaks for Billionaires

Protect Our Care Will Continue Its “Hands Off Medicaid” Campaign With Events and Activities Throughout the Month 

Washington, D.C. – Tuesday, April 1 kicks off the eighth annual Medicaid Awareness Month, and Protect Our Care is leading the charge to defend Medicaid and the care that Americans count on. Medicaid is under fire like never before as Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress pursue close to a trillion dollars in cuts. Their efforts jeopardize the health care that one in five Americans rely on in order to fund massive tax breaks for the wealthy and large corporations. If Trump and MAGA Republicans get their way, millions will lose their health care.

Medicaid provides health care to over 70 million Americans, including seniors who need long-term care, children who make up nearly half of Medicaid enrollees, new moms, rural Americans, people with disabilities, and working families. Medicaid benefits just about every household and community in the country, but the Republican health care agenda isn’t about families or everyday Americans — it’s about implementing Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthy, no matter how many people are left to pay the price. 

To mark the start of Medicaid Awareness Month, Protect Our Care President Brad Woodhouse released the following statement: “Trump and his yes-men in Congress are plotting the largest Medicaid cuts in history, all so the rich can get richer. This Republican budget proposal is an assault on hardworking Americans who count on Medicaid. This Medicaid Awareness Month, we’re calling out Donald Trump’s shameless war on health care and making it clear that Medicaid cuts mean tearing away health care from millions of Americans, including seniors, kids with disabilities, and low-income working people. Trump and his Republican allies are focused on lining the pockets of the wealthy, even if it means trampling on the needs of everyone else.” 

Throughout the month of April, Protect Our Care will release reports, publish fact sheets, host events around the country, and continue its “Hands Off Medicaid” campaign, demanding Republicans abandon their cuts to Medicaid. These activities will highlight Medicaid’s importance to middle- and low-income Americans, underscore what needs to be done to protect the program, and make clear the dire consequences of the Republican agenda. 

The month will include the following themes each week:

  • March 31 – April 4: Seniors: Over 8 million seniors across America rely on Medicaid for affordable and essential health care. It helps seniors age with dignity and independence and lightens the load of working families struggling to get by.
  • April 7 – 11: People with Disabilities: Medicaid covers 45 percent of non-elderly adults with disabilities, including adults with physical disabilities, developmental disabilities, and brain injuries.
  • April 14 – 18: Communities of Color: Over 60 percent of those covered by Medicaid are people of color. Altogether, Medicaid provides coverage for 36.9 million non-elderly Americans of color across the nation.
  • April 21 – 25: Opioid Crisis & Mental Health: Medicaid is the single largest payer for mental health services in America, serving 26 percent of all adults living with a serious mental health condition. Medicaid is crucial to building a system of comprehensive substance use disorder treatment. These interventions have been vital and life-saving.
  • April 28 – May 2: Moms and Kids: Medicaid provides the care for over 40 percent of births and other maternal care such as prenatal visits, ultrasounds, and screenings. It also covers nearly half of all American children, including children with special needs, foster youth, and children of color.

Background:

As one of the largest health insurers in the country, Medicaid is an indispensable pillar of our economy and health care system. Medicaid is a lifeline for children who make up almost half of Medicaid recipients, seniors in nursing homes, mothers, people with disabilities, rural Americans, and working families. It covers more than 40 percent of all births in the U.S. and is the single largest payer to community clinics, long-term care services, and mental health and substance use disorder care in the country. Medicaid keeps hospitals open in rural communities, helps children do better in school and earn better jobs in adulthood, shields families from overwhelming medical debt, allows seniors to age with dignity and the care they need, and so much more. 

By The Numbers

  • Republican threats to Medicaid put health care at risk for over 70 million (21 percent of) Americans, including:
  •  Republicans will create a $50 billion hole in state Medicaid budgets to pay for tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations. 
  • If Republicans decrease federal funding for people in the Medicaid expansion population, it would immediately rip health care away from 4 million Americans across twelve states and jeopardize health care for about 21 million people.
  • Republicans threaten care for 18.5 million people on Medicaid by imposing lifetime caps.
  • Republicans could deny coverage to 36 million Americans through burdensome bureaucratic reporting requirements.