Make America (un)Healthy Again

March 27, 2025

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced this morning that 10,000 permanent jobs would be cut from the agencies under its control, including the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The new cuts are in addition to the 10,000 people already fired or bought out through early retirement packages.

The combined cuts has reduced the workforce of HHS by almost 25%.

The cuts are to be accompanied by a consolidation of the department’s various divisions from 28 down to 15.

What is being cut

The largest reduction will be felt at the FDA, which will lose an additional 3500 full-time employees out of what had been a workforce of approximately 18,000 people under the Biden administration.

The CDC will lose an additional 2400 employees, and the NIH will lose 1200.

According to the Fact Sheet accompanying the news release, “The consolidation and cuts are designed not only to save money, but to make the organization more efficient and more responsive to Americans’ needs, and to implement the Make America Healthy Again goal of ending the chronic disease epidemic.”

What does this mean for food safety?

The goal of ending the chronic disease epidemic is laudable, and a review of the safety of food additives, artificial colors, and other non-essential ingredients is long overdue.

However, the FDA is being tasked with undertaking a major new program while at the same time digesting a major reduction in workforce.

Something’s got to give.

So far, there have been no specifics given as to what personnel will be cut within the FDA. Will it be laboratory services? Inspection staff? Research teams?

Just the latest in a series of questionable actions

The US food safety and disease prevention systems are under attack. Consider this partial list:

RFK, Jr., the HHS Secretary, has suggested allowing the bird flu epidemic to run its course in order to identify immune birds. He’s had some support from the Secretary of Agriculture for this approach. The virus already has jumped from poultry to dairy cattle and to a myriad of small mammals (including domestic and farm cats). Imagine the increased opportunity for mutations if the virus is allowed to spread unchecked.
RFK, Jr. encouraged the use of cod liver oil or vitamin A supplements as an alternative to vaccination to prevent the spread of measles, taking out of context studies conducted in low-income countries where vitamin A deficiency is common. As a result, doctors in Texas are encountering children suffering from vitamin A overdoses.
The NIH is ending grants for Covid-19 research, including the development of antiviral drugs.
The US government has arranged to purchase eggs from Turkey in order to bring down the price of eggs in the US, even though Turkey has a documented high level of Salmonella and bird flu contamination in its eggs, thus exposing US consumers to increased risk of infection with these pathogens.
The US government has terminated 60 federal grants to universities in support of HIV research.
The CDC has pulled $11 billion in funding to state and local health departments across the US. The funds were earmarked for Covid testing, vaccination, and related programs.
The NIH is terminating grants for programs to study vaccine hesitancy and to encourage vaccine uptake. This is directly in line with RFK, Jr.’s widely publicized vaccine skepticism.
The Trump administration has withdrawn from the World Health Organization and has terminated USAID programs that funded vaccination efforts in third-world countries.

And there will be more to come. While claiming to attack chronic diseases, the actions taken so far are making the US population more susceptible to the spread of acute illnesses. If this keeps up, I predict a noticeable rise in child mortality rates and infectious disease outbreaks across the USA.

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Hail and farewell, CDC

Donald Trump and RFK, Jr. have wasted no time in digging the CDC’s grave.

In a move reported today by multiple reputable news outlets (including CBS, NPR, and Fortune) the Department of Health and Human Services has ordered the CDC to eliminate nearly 1,300 probationary workers at the federal agency, decimating the agency’s workforce.

Probationary workers include those workers who are recent hires, as well as long-time workers who were promoted into more senior positions, including management roles.

The firings represent about 10% of the agency’s workforce and include almost one half of the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officers—the agency’s “disease detectives.”

The EIS firings will drastically impact the ability of the CDC to track the source of disease outbreaks, including foodborne diseases.

The CDC has not issued any news release about the firings. In fact, the CDC has not issued a news release on any topic since January 10, 2025.

It is safe to say that this is only the beginning.

In addition to these layoffs, the Trump/RFK administration has imposed restrictions on what research may be undertaken at the CDC and placed an embargo (“for the time being”) on submission of papers to scientific journals by CDC scientists, according to NPR.

Sadly, we can no longer rely upon the CDC for timely news of foodborne disease (or any other kind of disease) outbreaks.

While eFoodAlert cannot substitute for the CDC, I promise that we shall do our best to share whatever news is available.

I pledge to monitor all state departments of health and departments of agriculture websites and to communicate in a timely fashion any news that impacts the safety of the US consumers, especially as it relates to the food supply.

I call on all other news outlets to do the same.

Death by a Thousand Cuts

Donald Trump has declared war. Not on North Korea; not on ISIS or Iran. Certainly not on Russia.

Donald Trump has declared war on the Food Safety Modernization Act.

Trump has not asked Congress to repeal the act or to void its regulations. He knows that would not happen. Instead, he has launched a stealth attack via the budgetary process. An attack on the underpinnings of the country’s food safety enforcement system.

Last week, the Trump White House submitted its budget proposal to Congress. Buried within a single line of the more than one thousand-page budget was the following information:

Foods Program
2016 Actual spending: $1,002,000,000
2017 Estimated spending: $985,000,000
2018 Proposed spending: $910,000,000

That’s correct. Spending on food safety activities under Trump is already on the decline and, if he has his way, will continue to decrease year by year until the Food Safety Modernization Act is nothing but an empty shell. Emasculated due to lack of funding.

How does this compare with the previous administration’s funding? Since the 2011 enactment of the Food Safety Modernization Act, funding for the Foods Program has increased year over year at least in line with inflation, except for 2013 (the year of the infamous budget sequester – the 10% across-the-board cut to all discretionary spending programs).

Actual Spending on Foods Program
(Inflation-adjusted value of 2011 spending in brackets for comparison)
2011: $836,244,000
2012: $866,920,000 ($853,550,000)
2013: $796,638,000 ($866,052,000)
2014: $882,814,000 ($880,101,000)
2015: $903,340,000 ($881,146,000)
2016: $1,002,000,000 ($892,262,000)
2017 (est’d): $985,000,000 ($909,054,000)

We were already nearly four months into the fiscal year by the time Trump’s occupation of the Oval Office began, mitigating his impact on the Foods Program spending for 2017. However, his budget proposal for 2018 will reduce spending on the FDA’s Foods Program to less than the actual dollars spent in 2011, when adjusted for inflation.

The Animal Drugs and Feed Program, which encompasses approval of veterinary drugs and enforcement of pet food safety, fares even worse.

Animal Drugs and Feed Program
2016 Actual spending: $159,000,000
2017 Estimated spending: $158,000,000
2018 Proposed spending: $108,000,000

The Animal Drugs and Feed Program has been the runt of the FDA litter for many years, its year-over-year funding having failed to keep up with inflation more often than not. Yet, in an age when pet food safety is more important to more people than ever before, Trump has proposed to cut the budget for this program by 32% in real dollars and by 38% in inflation-adjusted dollars (based on 2011 dollars).

Spending on the Animal Drugs and Feed Program has not been this feeble since 2008.

Actual Spending on Animal Drugs and Feed Program
(Inflation-adjusted value of 2011 spending in brackets for comparison)
2011: $158,771,000
2012: $156,909,000 ($162,057,000)
2013: $147,774,000 ($164,430,000)
2014: $164,313,000 ($167,098,000)
2015: $175,024,000 ($167,296,000)
2016: $159,000,000 ($169,407,000)
2017 (est’d): $158,000,000 ($172,595,000)

Other federal departments and agencies are not immune to the disease of deregulation by financial starvation. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Environmental Protection Agency, and others too numerous to list here also are affected. Trump’s war on government regulation is unrestricted. And he is using the budget process as his primary weapon.

It is not a coincidence that I revived eFoodAlert when Trump took office. In the absence of robust and well-funded FDA enforcement programs, it is up to each one of us to provide the necessary vigilance. To recognize and report food safety issues. And to raise our voices in support of the regulatory and enforcement activities that are the essential underpinning of the Food Safety Modernization Act.

Remember Peanut Corporation of America. Remember De Coster Egg Farms. Remember the illnesses and deaths that resulted from the cavalier attitudes of the principals in both companies. Lack of enforcement breeds lack of compliance.

Trump has declared war on clean water, clean air, and food safety. It is time to fight back.