Nearly half of dismissed CDC staffers reinstated amid shutdown chaos

 October 14, 2025

Hold onto your hats, folks -- hundreds of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) employees got the shock of their careers late Friday when termination notices hit their inboxes, only for many to be told, “Oops, never mind!”

In a whirlwind of bureaucratic blunders, about 1,300 CDC workers were initially slated for layoffs under the Trump administration’s Reduction in Force (RIF) plans, with roughly 700 reinstated after a coding glitch was discovered, while 600 remain out in the cold, as Newsweek reports.

The saga began when the Trump administration, pushing for leaner government operations, rolled out these RIF initiatives, as announced by Russell Vought, Director of the United States Office of Management and Budget, in a blunt post on X declaring, “The RIFs have begun.”

Administrative error sparks agency turmoil

By Friday or Saturday, affected employees learned of the error, with Andrew Nixon, communications director for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), assuring that the mistakenly targeted staff were never truly let go.

“The employees who received incorrect notifications were never separated from the agency and have all been notified that they are not subject to the reduction in force,” Nixon stated, per CNN, though one wonders if a simple “sorry” email can mend the morale of those who spent a weekend thinking their careers were toast.

Let’s be real -- while it’s great that 700 folks got their jobs back, the fact that a mere coding error could upend lives during a public health crisis speaks volumes about the need for precision over progressive overreach in government systems.

Critical CDC divisions hit hard

Among the reinstated are key players from divisions like the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, and even Athalia Christie, the incident commander battling the nation’s worst measles outbreak in decades.

Yet, the damage lingers, with roughly 600 employees still separated, and critical areas like the Washington office, Violence Prevention programs, and the Office of the Director of the Injury Center bearing the brunt of these cuts.

It’s hard not to see this as a gut punch to an agency already stretched thin, managing a measles crisis with over 1,500 cases since January, alongside other disease responses and massive grant programs for state and local governments.

Political firestorm erupts over decisions

The timing couldn’t be worse, and the fallout has sparked sharp criticism, with Democrat Rep. Pramila Jayapal taking to X to blast the layoffs as a deliberate attempt to “inflict maximum pain” on Americans.

While her rhetoric might lean toward the dramatic, there’s a kernel of truth in questioning why such drastic measures had to hit health authorities, surely, streamlining government shouldn’t mean sidelining our first responders to disease.

Adding fuel to the fire, high-level CDC officials, including Dr. Debra Houry, resigned in August over the dismissal of recently confirmed CDC Director Dr. Susan Monarez, signaling deeper unrest within the agency’s ranks.

Broader cuts, legal challenges emerge

President Donald Trump himself hinted at further agency trims in a Truth Social post earlier this month after meeting with Vought, framing the cuts as a chance to dismantle what he sees as politically driven bureaucratic bloat.

Meanwhile, the American Federation of Government Employees isn’t taking this lying down, filing a lawsuit to challenge the layoffs, which court filings reveal have impacted over 4,100 federal workers across multiple departments like HHS, Commerce, and Homeland Security.

Look, trimming fat in government is a noble goal, especially when so many agencies seem more focused on pushing agendas than serving taxpayers, but let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater -- especially when that baby is our public health safety net during a measles surge.

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