Health
10,000 Federal Health Workers to Be Laid Off
The Trump administration announced on Thursday that it was laying off 10,000 employees at the Health and Human Services Department as part of a broad reorganization that reflects the priorities of the health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and the White House’s drive to shrink the government.
The layoffs are a drastic reduction in personnel for the health department, which had employed about 82,000 people and touches the lives of every American through its oversight of medical care, food and drugs.
The layoffs and reorganization will cut especially deep at two agencies within the department that have been in Mr. Kennedy’s sights: the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those agencies are expected to lose roughly 20 percent of their staff members from the latest cuts alone.
Together with previous buyouts and early retirements spurred by Trump administration policies, the move will pare the health department down to about 62,000 employees, the agency said.
The restructuring is intended to bring communications and other functions directly under Mr. Kennedy. And it includes creating a new division called the Administration for a Healthy America.
“We’re going to do more with less,” Mr. Kennedy said, even as he acknowledged that it would be “a painful period for H.H.S.”
Mr. Kennedy asserted that rates of chronic disease rose under the Biden administration even as the government grew. But he did not provide data to back up his claim; experts say that rates of chronic disease have been rising for the past two decades, including under the first Trump administration. Two 2024 analyses of the issue used C.D.C. data from 2020.
The health secretary pitched the changes as a way to refocus the agency on Americans’ health, but did not outline any specifics on how he would reduce rates of diabetes, heart disease or any other conditions.
Inside the affected agencies, stunned employees struggled to absorb the news. Democrats and outside experts said the move would decimate agencies charged with protecting the health and safety of the American public, depriving it of the scientific expertise necessary to respond to current and future biological threats.
“In the middle of worsening nationwide outbreaks of bird flu and measles, not to mention a fentanyl epidemic, Trump is wrecking vital health agencies with the precision of a bull in a china shop,” said Senator Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat who has been a leader on health issues in Congress.
She called Mr. Kennedy’s comments about doing more with less an “absurd suggestion” that “defies common sense.” Her sentiments were echoed by several agency employees, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid retribution.
They said they worried not for themselves, but for the country, expressing concern about what the layoffs would mean for public health and whether putting safety at risk was really what Americans wanted.
Under the plan, the C.D.C., which handles a wide range of health issues including H.I.V./AIDS, tobacco control, maternal health and the distribution of vaccines for children, would return to its “core mission” of infectious disease.
“Converting C.D.C. to an agency solely focused on infectious diseases takes us back to 1948 without realizing that in 2025, the leading causes of death are noncommunicable disease,” said Dr. Anand Parekh, who served in the health department during the Obama administration and is now the chief medical adviser at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington.
The C.D.C. will have its work force cut by about 2,400 employees, and will narrow its focus to “preparing for and responding to epidemics and outbreaks,” an H.H.S. fact sheet said. But it will also absorb the health department’s Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, which has 1,000 employees and was elevated to its own separate agency under the Biden administration during the coronavirus pandemic.
The reorganization will cut 3,500 jobs from the F.D.A., which approves and oversees the safety of a vast swath of the medications and food people eat and rely on for well-being, the fact sheet said. The cuts are said to be administrative, but some of the roles support research and monitoring of the safety and purity of food and drugs, as well as travel planning for inspectors who investigate overseas food and drug facilities.
The National Institutes of Health will lose 1,200 staff members, and the agency that administers Medicare and Medicaid is expected to lose 300.
All of those agencies tend to operate under their own authority, and Mr. Kennedy has been at odds with all of them. Mr. Kennedy assailed them, and other parts of the department, in a YouTube video.
“When I arrived, I found that over half of our employees don’t even come to work,” he claimed. “H.H.S. has more than 100 communications offices and more than 40 I.T. departments and dozens of procurement offices and nine H.R. departments. In many cases, they don’t even talk to each other. They’re mainly operating in silos.”
Mr. Kennedy’s move to take control of health communications is significant. Currently, agencies including the C.D.C., the N.I.H. and the F.D.A. manage their own communications with the press and the public.
During the first Trump administration, the C.D.C. clashed with the White House, which silenced agency scientists and took control of its public outreach about Covid-19. The agency’s chief spokesman quit in frustration last week, saying the C.D.C. has been muzzled since January, when Mr. Trump returned to office.
The 28 divisions of the Health and Human Services Department will be consolidated into 15 new divisions, according to a statement issued by the department. Mr. Kennedy announced the changes in his video. The staff cuts, reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal, are being made in line with President Trump’s order to carry out the Department of Government Efficiency’s drive to shrink the federal work force.
The plan also includes collapsing 10 regional H.H.S. offices into five.
The department notified union leaders of the “reduction in force” — known as a “RIF” in federal parlance — early Thursday morning by email. The message, obtained by The New York Times, said the layoffs would most likely take effect on May 27 and were “primarily aimed at administrative positions including human resources, information technology, procurement and finance.”
Democrats including Ms. Murray reacted with fury to the cuts. Representative Gerald E. Connolly of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said the cuts were troubling amid a bird flu outbreak and an uptick in measles cases.
“This is a grave mistake,” Mr. Connolly said in a statement, “and I have serious concerns about how this will impact Americans’ well-being now and long into the future.”
Republicans seemed to be taking more of a wait-and-see stance. Senator Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana and the chairman of the committee that oversees health, said he had breakfast with Mr. Kennedy on Thursday. Mr. Cassidy suggested he was open to the reorganization but expected the two “would have more conversations” about specific cuts as their effects became clearer.
Doreen Greenwald, the president of the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents 18,500 H.H.S. staff members across the country, issued a statement vowing to “pursue every opportunity to fight back on behalf of these dedicated civil servants.”
“The administration’s claims that such deep cuts to the Food and Drug Administration and other critical H.H.S. offices won’t be harmful are preposterous,” Ms. Greenwald said.
Xavier Becerra, who served as health secretary under President Joseph R. Biden Jr., issued a statement saying the cuts would most likely downgrade services to elderly and disabled people, and those with mental health challenges, in addition to preparedness for health crises.
“This has the makings of a man-made disaster,” he said on social media.
Mr. Kennedy suggested in the video that the changes would help his team get more access to data. That prospect has been worrisome to his critics, given Mr. Kennedy’s long history of manipulating figures to advance arguments about what he contends are the risks of vaccines that have widely been deemed safe.
“In one case,” Mr. Kennedy said, “defiant bureaucrats impeded the secretary’s office from accessing the closely guarded databases that might reveal the dangers of certain drugs and medical interventions.”
Mr. Kennedy said the new division he is creating, the Administration for a Healthy America, would combine a number of agencies focused on substance abuse treatment and chemical safety, as well as the agency that administers courts that handle federal claims over vaccine injuries.
“We’re going to consolidate all of these departments and make them accountable to you, the American taxpayer and the American patient,” he said. “These goals will honor the aspirations of the vast majority of existing H.H.S. employees who actually yearn to make America healthy.”
Michael Gold contributed reporting.
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Oral insulin could one day replace injections for people with diabetes, new scientific discoveries suggest.
Researchers from Kumamoto University in Japan have announced the development of an insulin pill to help lower blood sugar.
For diabetics, insulin is typically administered via injection, but the pill would offer a non-invasive treatment option.
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“Insulin injections remain a daily burden for many patients,” said associate professor Shingo Ito, a researcher in the study’s press release. “Our peptide-based platform offers a new route to deliver insulin orally, and may be applicable to long-acting insulin formulations and other injectable biologics.”
Oral insulin could one day replace injections for people with diabetes, new scientific discoveries suggest. (iStock)
The study, published in the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics, tested the delivery of oral insulin by building a carrier peptide called DNP-V. This peptide helps to transport insulin through the small intestine, where protein drug absorption is usually poor.
In diabetic mice models, the researchers administered the peptide by mouth with zinc-stabilized insulin, which was formulated with zinc ions to make it more stable, according to the study.
“Insulin injections remain a daily burden for many patients.”
The result was a rapid and significant drop in blood glucose, as well as a sustained (longer-term) decrease. The mice’s blood sugar was reduced to near-normal levels.
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When DNP-V was attached directly to insulin, the results showed enhanced absorption in the intestines and a similar glucose-lowering effect, the researchers noted.
The treatment was effective in different diabetes models, significantly reducing blood sugar spikes after meals with just one dose per day.
The study was done in mice, which leaves uncertainty if the treatment will translate to humans. (iStock)
The findings suggest that DNP peptides could serve as flexible, adaptable platforms for delivering large-molecule drugs by mouth, the authors concluded in the study abstract.
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“This technology can simply and effectively convert injectable biopharmaceuticals into orally administrable forms, offering a promising path to practical, patient-friendly oral therapies,” they wrote.
Although the researchers are optimistic about the findings translating to larger therapeutic models, they noted that the results in mice do not guarantee the same outcome in humans, and that more research is needed.
For diabetics, insulin is typically administered via injection to regulate blood sugar levels. (iStock)
Dr. Marc Siegel commented on this development, noting that oral insulin could make a big difference in healthcare.
“Insulin use, especially in type 1 diabetes, is sometimes difficult to regulate by injection,” Siegel, who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital. “Oral use would have major advantages.”
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He added, “This is very promising provided that it works in humans, which is a big ‘if.’”
Fox News Digital reached out to the study authors for comment.
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Students at the University of Kent in the U.K. are calling for a shutdown in light of an active meningitis outbreak.
The demands follow multiple alerts from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) about the outbreak.
As of March 18, the agency had announced a total of 15 confirmed cases of meningococcal disease, 12 additional potential cases and two deaths in Kent, a county in the southeast of England. The University of Kent is located in Canterbury, a historic city within Kent.
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Meningococcal disease is a serious bacterial infection caused by Neisseria meningitidis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It can cause two life-threatening conditions: meningitis (infection of the brain and spinal cord lining) and a bloodstream infection called septicemia, which can lead to sepsis, per the above source.
Two people have died amid an outbreak of meningitis at the University of Kent in Canterbury. (Carl Court/Getty Images)
Even with prompt treatment, meningococcal disease can become fatal within hours. Health agencies report a typical fatality rate of about 10% to 15%.
In response to the outbreak, students at the University of Kent launched an online petition calling for campus to be closed.
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“Students at the University of Kent are increasingly concerned about reports of meningitis and sepsis cases affecting members of the campus community,” the petition states, as posted on Change.org. “The confirmation of two deaths, along with reports of hospitalizations, has caused understandable concern among students and staff.”
The petition expressed concern that in-person exams, lectures and other campus activities are continuing amid the outbreak.
As of March 18, health officials had announced a total of 15 confirmed cases of meningococcal disease, 12 additional potential cases and two deaths in Kent, a county in the southeast of England. (Carl Court/Getty Images)
“Many students feel that they are being placed in a difficult position: attend exams and in-person activities during a period of heightened concern or prioritize their health and well-being while risking potential academic consequences,” the petition states. “Students should not feel forced to choose between protecting their well-being and continuing their education.”
“Students deserve to feel safe on campus,” the petition concluded. “We are therefore calling on the University of Kent to consider precautionary steps to prioritize the well-being of students and staff during this situation.
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Preventative antibiotic treatment is being distributed to University of Kent students, according to UKHSA, as well as to those who visited Club Chemistry, a nightclub in Canterbury, between March 5 and March 7.
“A vaccination program has started for students and staff who live in or work in the halls at the University of Kent Canterbury Campus — approximately 5,000 students,” the agency noted.
Fox News Digital reached out to the university requesting comment.
Symptoms of meningococcal disease
Described by the CDC as a “rare but severe illness,” meningococcal disease most commonly causes symptoms of meningitis, including fever, stiff neck, headache, nausea, vomiting, sensitivity to light or altered mental status.
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It can also cause meningococcal bloodstream infection, which is marked by fever and chills, vomiting, fatigue, vomiting, cold hands and feet, severe aches and pains, diarrhea, rapid breathing or a dark purple rash, the CDC notes.
Transmission and treatment
Meningitis infections can spread through close contact with someone who has meningococcal disease, “generally, through things like coughing or kissing, but it can also spread by being in the same household or room for extended periods of time with an individual who is infected,” Dr. Barbara Bawer, a primary care physician at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, previously told Fox News Digital.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is contacting 30,000 students and staff of the university to notify them of the outbreak. (Carl Court/Getty Images)
Those who have symptoms of the disease should see their primary care physician immediately, according to the doctor.
As symptoms tend to progress quickly and can be life-threatening, it is essential that the patient receives antibiotics immediately.
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“It can become fatal or dangerous very quickly — within hours — for any individual, especially if antibiotics are not initiated in a timely manner,” Bawer warned. “Even with antibiotics, meningitis can be fatal.”
She added, “This is often due to misdiagnosis, because meningitis can mimic many other illnesses.”
Infection prevention
Most cases of meningococcal disease worldwide are caused by six variations of the Neisseria meningitidis bacteria — A, B, C, W, X and Y.
In the U.S., the most common variations are B, C, W and Y. There are vaccines available to protect against types A, C, W and Y (the MenACWY vaccine) and type B (MenB vaccine), according to the CDC.
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“MenACWY vaccines are routinely recommended for adolescents and for people with other risk factors or underlying medical conditions, including HIV,” the agency previously stated.
“Students should not feel forced to choose between protecting their well-being and continuing their education.”
To reduce risk, Bawer recommends that people get vaccinated with the current meningitis vaccine as recommended by the CDC and avoid being in very closed-in spaces with others as much as possible.
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“If you know of someone who has meningitis in your household or you’ve come in contact with their oral secretions (i.e., you kissed them), then you should get preventative antibiotics,” the doctor told Fox News Digital.
This is even more important for those who are immune-compromised or who are on medications that decrease the immune system, Bawer added.
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The practice of combining cold exposure and breathwork — known as the Wim Hof Method — has gained popularity as a wellness practice, with some research suggesting benefits for stress, energy and mental clarity, though evidence for treating chronic disease remains limited.
And now, a recent study published in the journal Nature appears to support the technique’s potential health benefits.
The research included more than 400 healthy adults averaging 37 years of age, who practiced either the Wim Hof Method (WHM) or mindfulness meditation daily for about one month.
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The WHM practitioners were split into in-person and at-home groups, where one did ice baths and the other took cold showers.
The participants reported their energy, mental clarity, and stress and anxiety levels. The researchers also measured heart rate, breathing and sleep.
Wim Hof, creator of the Wim Hof Method that combines cold exposure and breathwork, is pictured among icebergs on Iceland’s Diamond Beach. (Wim Hof Method)
Participants in the breathwork and cold group had greater improvements in energy, mental clarity and ability to handle stress, benefits that were most noticeable right after their daily practice.
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The study also found that meditation reduced stress early on, but the WHM showed gradual improvements in stress levels over a longer time period. Differences in sleep, cognition and heart health measures were more subtle.
The short 29-day study period could pose a limitation in measuring long-term impacts, the researchers acknowledged.
Wim Hof is pictured meditating in the snow in Switzerland. “I felt that this was going to make a huge difference in people,” he said of his method. (Wim Hof Method)
The participants also knew which group they were placed in, which could have influenced the self-reported results.
“I felt that this was going to make a huge difference in people,” Wim Hof told Fox News Digital. “I had a lot of anecdotal evidence, but that doesn’t make it scientific.”
What is the Wim Hof Method?
The Wim Hof Method is comprised of three pillars: cold, breathing and mindset.
“It is a combination of the three … and when they come together, they reinforce each other and become stronger,” he said. “Use the cold well, and you bring the immune system, the energy system and your cardiovascular system to an optimum [state].”
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Breathing has been shown to lower inflammation, which is the main driver of disease, according to Wim Hof. Research has also shown that a change in mindset can re-circuit the brain to handle stress more efficiently.
Lowering stress levels is crucial to improving health, he noted, as high cortisol (the body’s stress hormone) and inflammation are drivers of chronic disease.
Sunday Swim, a group practicing the Wim Hof Method, does a cold plunge on a Long Island beach. (Sunday Swim)
Lead study author Dr. Jemma King, of the University of Queensland School of Psychology in Australia, said she entered the world’s largest Wim Hof study with a “healthy dose of scientific skepticism.”
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“People are really anxious, people are really burnt out, and the world is very destabilized at the moment,” she told Fox News Digital. “People are increasingly dependent on healthcare systems, and profits keep growing and people keep getting sicker.”
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“We’re glued to screens; we’re reaching for pills every time life feels hard. And so we really wanted to [find out] — is there a better way?”
Sunday Swim founder Brendan Cooke assists participants with breathwork on a Long Island beach. (Sunday Swim)
Although meditation is an important tool for some, an alternative method that involves more activity may be a better option for those with “busy brains,” according to the researcher.
“You’re not sitting there just accepting energy,” she said. “You can actually face it head on, and you can overcome your aversion to the cold, which is very invigorating.”
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“If you choose to do small doses of the right kind of stress, it doesn’t break you down. It actually makes you stronger,” King added.
Scientifically, breathwork can help flush the brain of toxins, clearing mental fog while increasing levels of the beneficial chemicals adrenaline and dopamine, she noted.
Cold exposure may not be safe for everyone, especially those with certain cardiovascular conditions. (iStock)
“We also found something really shocking and unexpected: The people doing the Wim Hof Method became more willing to speak up at work,” King shared. “They were more likely to raise hard issues or have a voice or take interpersonal risks.”
“If you train yourself to step into the cold water every morning, you kind of override that voice that says, ‘Don’t do that,’” she added. “This bravery, this toughness that you train every morning, starts to show up everywhere else in your life.”
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Starting safely
For beginners, Hof recommends simply stepping into a cold shower at home, which activates the cardiovascular system and boosts energy.
“Take the cold shower, go into that breathing, and suddenly you’ll feel an innate power awakening,” he said. “That is the nervous system, and you have control over that.”
Cold exposure may not be safe for everyone, especially those with certain cardiovascular conditions, such as abnormal heart rhythms, heart disease or Raynaud’s syndrome, according to Harvard Health.
Those with underlying conditions should get a physician’s approval before embarking on a cold plunge or another mode of cold exposure therapy, experts advise.
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“[For those who] have conditions, I say start with breathing alone,” Hof recommended. “Breathing trains the nervous system like weightlifting trains the muscles.”
“Know that you are built to have willful control over your health, happiness and strength,” he added.
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