Health
C.D.C. Cuts Threaten to Set Back the Nation’s Health, Critics Say
The extensive layoffs of federal health workers that began on Tuesday will greatly curtail the scope and influence of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the world’s premier public health agency, an outcome long sought by conservatives critical of its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The reorganization of the Department of Health and Human Services shrinks the C.D.C. by 2,400 employees, or roughly 18 percent of its work force, and strips away some of its core functions.
Some Democrats in Congress described the reorganization throughout H.H.S. as flatly illegal.
“You cannot decimate and restructure H.H.S. without Congress,” said Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, and a member of the Senate health committee.
“This is not only unlawful but seriously harmful — they are putting Americans’ health and well-being on the line,” she added.
Ms. Murray noted that the Trump administration had not detailed which units are being cut at the C.D.C. and other health agencies. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, said last week the layoffs would affect primarily administrative functions.
But according to information gathered by The New York Times from dozens of workers, the reductions were more broadly targeted. Scientists focused on environmental health and asthma, injuries, lead poisoning, smoking and climate change were dismissed.
Researchers studying blood disorders, violence prevention and access to vaccines were let go. The agency’s center on H.I.V. and sexually transmitted diseases was among the hardest hit, losing about 27 percent of its staff.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which makes recommendations on how to keep workers safe, was all but dissolved.
What remains is a hobbled C.D.C., with a smaller global footprint, devoting fewer resources to environmental health, occupational health and disease prevention, public health experts said.
Instead, the agency will be trained more narrowly on domestic disease outbreaks. Communications will be centralized at H.H.S. in Washington.
The department intends “to ensure a more coordinated and effective response to public health challenges, ultimately benefiting the American taxpayer,” said Emily Hilliard, deputy press secretary at the department.
“C.D.C. scientists have conducted numerous interviews on a variety of topics and will continue to do so,” she added.
Critics predicted the move would prevent scientists from speaking frankly about public health.
“American taxpayers provide the resources for C.D.C.’s specialists and have the right to hear directly from them without interference by politicians,” said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, who led the agency from 2009 to 2017.
The sweeping reductions arrive as the nation confronts an outbreak of measles in Texas and elsewhere, a spreading bird flu epidemic on poultry and dairy farms, and a raft of new questions about public health measures like water fluoridation and school vaccine requirements.
“What we seem to be seeing is a dismantling rather than a restructuring” of the public health system, said Dr. Richard Besser, chief executive of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and a former acting director of the C.D.C.
On Capitol Hill, the Senate health committee, which recommended confirmation of Mr. Kennedy as secretary, scheduled a hearing on the reorganization of H.H.S., citing the possible impacts on public health.
Mr. Kennedy has described the reorganization as an effort to clean up waste and bureaucracy while promising that federal health agencies would do more to improve the health of Americans.
“We’re going to eliminate an entire alphabet soup of departments and agencies while preserving their core functions by merging them into a new organization called the Administration for a Healthy America,” the secretary said in a videotaped message announcing the layoffs.
The department did not respond to requests for more detailed information.
Society’s most vulnerable — the poor, Black, Latino and Native American people, rural Americans with less access to health care, the disabled and those at highest risk for illness — are likely to be hit hardest, experts said.
“These communities rely on public health to a larger extent than wealthy communities do,” Dr. Besser said.
For decades, public health and medical research drew support across the political spectrum.
But the C.D.C. has been in the political cross hairs since the first Trump administration, when the White House muzzled the agency’s communications, meddled with its publications and blamed its scientists for bungling the pandemic response.
In recent years, lawmakers have harshly criticized the agency’s advice on masks, lockdowns, social distancing, school closures and various other attempts to contain the pandemic, calling them economically and socially disastrous.
Project 2025, the conservative blueprint for reshaping the federal government, described the C.D.C. as “perhaps the most incompetent and arrogant” federal agency, and called on Congress to curb its powers.
Through staffing cuts, the administration reduced critical divisions of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, and employees studying how to prevent gun violence, child abuse and elder abuse were fired.
Injuries are the leading cause of death among Americans under 45. About 47,000 Americans are killed by firearms each year, more than half of them suicides.
But gun violence is a politically fraught topic. Pressure from the National Rifle Association and conservative politicians led to a ban on using federal funds to study gun violence for almost 25 years. Funding was restored in 2019.
The injury center studied ways to improve gun safety and promoted the use of gun locks, particularly in homes where children live.
“People think of gun violence as a question for law enforcement, but the public health approach has made a big difference,” said Dr. Mark Rosenberg, a former center director.
Most of the C.D.C.’s Division of Reproductive Health, which studies maternal health, was also shuttered. Whether some or all of its portfolio will be assumed by the new organization created by Mr. Kennedy was not clear.
Pregnant women and newborns die in the United States at a far higher rate than in other industrialized nations.
In recent years, the C.D.C. focused on stark racial health disparities that put Black American women at nearly three times the risk of dying of pregnancy complications than white women.
But the Trump administration has been defunding studies of health disparities in racial, ethnic and gender minorities, saying they do not align with the president’s executive orders ending diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Mr. Kennedy said last week that the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which makes recommendations for preventing work-related injuries and illnesses, would be absorbed into the health department.
But on Tuesday, most of its divisions were eliminated, among them offices dedicated to protecting workers in various industries, including mine inspectors.
Even one of the agency’s most essential functions, infectious disease research, was affected.
The Trump administration had been weighing moving the H.I.V. prevention division to a different agency within the health department.
But on Tuesday, teams leading H.I.V. surveillance and research within that division were laid off. It was unclear whether some of those functions would be recreated elsewhere. (A team in the global health center working on preventing mother-to-child transmission of H.I.V. was also cut.)
Until now, the C.D.C. provided funds to states and territories for responding to and preventing H.I.V. outbreaks. Roughly one in four new diagnoses of H.I.V. is made with agency funds.
Some H.I.V. experts warned that the move could lead to a rise in H.I.V. infections among Americans.
“H.I.V. prevention is a lot more than just giving out condoms,” said Dr. John Brooks, who served as chief medical officer for the division of H.I.V. prevention until last year. “It saves lives, averts illness and produces enormous cost savings.”
Broadly, the reorganization aligns with Mr. Kennedy’s preferred emphasis on research into chronic diseases; federal research has been far too focused on infectious diseases, he has said.
But the line between them is not always clear, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, former principal deputy director of the C.D.C. Research that seems disconnected from outbreak response may also be a key for fighting pathogens.
“For Zika, we needed experts in birth defects, entomology and vector control, virologists and environmental health experts,” she said. “Emerging threats don’t respect borders of C.D.C. organizational units.”
The reorganization risks choking the talent pipeline for public health, said Ursula Bauer, former director of the agency’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
“Once you decimate an agency like C.D.C., which is full of high-caliber highly trained individuals, building back is going to be incredibly difficult,” she said.
“It will take two to three times as long to undo the damage as it took to inflict it.”
The cuts also will take a toll on the agency’s ability to gather and analyze data, which are keys to identifying trends and developing interventions, Dr. Phil Huang, director of Dallas County Health and Human Services, said at a news briefing.
“You take away those systems, and it takes away the ability to see the impact of all these cuts,” he added.
Can bird flu be the next pandemic?
Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst, weighs in on how concerned people should be about bird flu spreading on ‘Fox Report.’
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The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) has confirmed that a resident of Grays Harbor County is the first person in the U.S. known to be infected with the H5N5 strain of avian influenza.
The case also marks the country’s first human bird flu diagnosis since February.
The patient, described by officials as “an older adult with underlying health conditions,” remains hospitalized after showing influenza-like symptoms in early November.
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The DOH stated that the individual “had a mixed backyard flock of domestic poultry at home that had exposure to wild birds.
“Additional testing shows the virus to be H5N5, an avian influenza virus that has previously been reported in animals but never before in humans.”
The H5N5 virus is a close cousin of H5N1 — both are types of bird flu — but they’re not the same, experts say. (Reuters/Mike Blake)
Domestic poultry and wild birds are considered the most likely sources of the virus exposure, though the health investigation is ongoing.
Public health experts have not found any increased risk to the public to date, according to the press release.
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“Transmission of avian influenza between humans is extremely rare and has never been documented in the United States,” the report states.
The patient, who is only described as an “older adult,” remains hospitalized as of the latest report. (iStock)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and DOH “currently consider the risk to the public from avian influenza to be low.”
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The DOH urges poultry owners, wildlife handlers and others who have contact with animals to exercise caution.
Measures include avoiding contact with sick or dead birds, using appropriate protective equipment and reporting sick wildlife or domestic animals to the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA).
“Infection with both [regular flu and bird flu] could result in the emergence of an avian influenza virus that is more easily transmitted from person to person.” (iStock)
The release also emphasizes that although the seasonal flu vaccine does not prevent bird flu infections, it is important because “infection with both viruses could result in the emergence of an avian influenza virus that is more easily transmitted from person to person.”
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Previously this year, the CDC declared the bird flu emergency officially over.
The agency’s emergency response to H5N1 bird flu, which was activated in 2024, was “deactivated” July 2, the agency told Reuters, citing declining animal infections and an absence of human cases since February.
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The H5N5 virus is a close cousin of H5N1. While both viruses come from birds and share part of their genetic code, H5N5 has a different “end piece” of its structure that changes how it behaves, experts say.
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While H5N1 has caused human illness — and even deaths — for years, H5N5 has mostly been limited to birds until now, per health officials.
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One specific spice could function as a natural antidepressant, an expert says.
Saffron, found in popular foods and drinks like paella and herbal teas, has shown promise for its ability to boost mood and reduce symptoms of depression, in addition to other various health benefits.
During an in-studio interview with Fox News Digital, Dr. Daniel Amen, psychiatrist and founder of Amen Clinics in California, shared his enthusiasm about using saffron for mental health support.
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“I love saffron so much,” he said. “I’m Lebanese, and Middle Eastern folks cook with a lot of saffron. And there’s actually folklore in Iran: If you’re too happy, you must have had saffron.”
Amen referenced research showing that about 30 milligrams of saffron was “equally as effective” as antidepressants in randomized trials.
Saffron may increase sexual function, unlike traditional SSRIs, according to Dr. Amen. (iStock)
While most SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) can help boost mood, they also pose the risk of decreasing sexual function. Saffron does the opposite, according to Amen.
“As a psychiatrist, I don’t want to ruin my patients’ love lives,” he said. “Saffron increased sexual function [in research].”
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Saffron has also been shown to help with memory and focus, according to various studies.
A recent study, published in Reviews in Clinical Medicine 2025, also linked saffron to decreased symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS).
Research has shown that saffron can boost mood and improve PMS symptoms. (iStock)
After eight to 12 weeks of saffron use, participants reported that the supplement “significantly reduced” the symptoms and severity of PMS.
Additional research published in the Cambridge University Press in May 2025 revealed saffron’s potential to ease depression symptoms.
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The review analyzed 192 trials involving more than 17,000 patients and 44 different nutraceuticals to determine which supplements work for depression.
Saffron was identified as most effective, showing a moderate to large antidepressant effect.
Saffron is found in a variety of dishes, including paella and rice variations. (iStock)
The meta-analysis also examined how these nutraceuticals interacted with prescribed antidepressant medications.
Combining supplements like zinc and curcumins (natural compounds found in turmeric) with existing antidepressants were found to improve symptoms.
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“So, if you’re on an antidepressant and you want it to work even better, think about zinc and curcumins,” Amen recommended. “Saffron, zinc and curcumins is a great combination.”
Saffron is often consumed as a supplement in pills, capsules or powders. (iStock)
While cooking with saffron may not achieve the levels needed to improve mood, saffron supplements are available as capsules, tablets and powdered extract. Thirty milligrams per day is typically the recommended dose for symptom relief.
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Long-term use of saffron has yet to be studied, as there is some uncertainty around its potency as a supplement, researchers and experts have warned.
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According to a medically reviewed WebMD article, taking saffron in high doses or for long periods of time “may be risky,” potentially causing anxiety, appetite changes, upset stomach sleepiness or headache.
Anyone interested in starting a saffron supplement should first consult with a doctor.
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Scientists may have found a way to stop Alzheimer’s damage before it starts — by “melting” the tiny protein clumps that are the early triggers of the disease.
Alzheimer’s has long been linked to harmful tau protein fibrils that build up in the brain and interfere with cognitive function, but researchers have now discovered soft, small clusters that appear first.
When those early clusters were dissolved, it prevented the toxic fibrils from forming, which could effectively block the disease, according to researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University.
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Led by Professor Rei Kurita, the scientists used precise X-ray and fluorescence methods in a laboratory setting to find the microscopic “precursors,” which measured only tens of nanometers, according to a press release.
Because the tiny precursors were soft, the researchers were able to dissolve them. As a result, no tau fibrils were formed.
Scientists may have found a way to stop Alzheimer’s damage before it starts — by “melting” the tiny protein clumps that are the early triggers of the disease. (iStock)
These results suggest a shift in how scientists might develop Alzheimer’s disease treatments.
Rather than focusing on breaking apart the final fibril formations, new therapies could target the earlier, reversible precursor stage to prevent harmful structures from forming in the first place, according to the release.
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This strategy could eventually be applied to the research of neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s.
The study did have some limitations, primarily that it involved in-vitro biochemical models and no humans or animals. It’s not known whether similar reversible clusters exist in human brain tissue.
Alzheimer’s has long been linked to harmful tau protein fibrils that build up in the brain and interfere with cognitive function. (iStock)
More research is needed to find out if breaking up these protein clusters is safe and could actually help treat the disease.
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Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News senior medical analyst, was not involved in the study but shared his reactions to the findings.
“There are three essential components structurally involved in the development of Alzheimer’s disease — beta amyloid proteins, tau proteins and neuroinflammation,” he told Fox News Digital.
“In the future, there will likely be triple therapy — anti-inflammation, anti-beta-amyloid and anti-tau.”
“There are already treatments on the market to target beta amyloid buildup, and now here’s a targeted therapy to dissolve and disrupt tau protein buildup before it forms the dreaded neurofibrillatory tangles.”
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Siegel believes this is “bound to be of clinical value” and will likely be better tolerated than other medications currently on the market.
“In the future, there will likely be triple therapy — anti-inflammation, anti-beta-amyloid and anti-tau,” he predicts.
“This is promising basic research that may turn out to deepen our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the disease, but it is preliminary,” an expert said. (iStock)
Courtney Kloske, Ph.D., director of scientific engagement for the Alzheimer’s Association in Chicago, also reacted to the study in an interview with Fox News Digital.
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“This manuscript focuses on altering the structure of tau, one of the hallmark brain proteins involved in Alzheimer’s, and on exploring approaches that could potentially slow or stop disease development,” said Kloske, who was also not involved in the study.
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“This is promising basic research that may turn out to deepen our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the disease, but it is preliminary, and additional studies are needed to determine how these findings can be translated into human studies.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the researchers for comment.
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