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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‘Indiscriminate’ layoffs at FDA prompt food head to resign

February 18, 2025

Jim Jones, the FDA’s Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods, resigned in protest yesterday after dozens of staff members were terminated over the holiday weekend.

In his letter of resignation, quoted in part on several news sites, Jones pointed out that the fired employees were individuals with “highly technical expertise in nutrition, infant formula, food safety response,” and included ten staffers responsible for reviewing potentially unsafe ingredients in food.

A dollop of history

During the first Trump administration, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb eliminated the position of Deputy Commissioner for Food, resulting in a fragmention of responsibilities and authority within this important sector of the FDA.

The 2022 Cronobacter sakazakii outbreak that was linked to Abbott Nutrition’s powdered infant formula products exposed serious flaws in the FDA’s organization and reporting structures.

In February 2023, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf revealed a rough plan for reorganizing the food side of the agency, including restoring the position of Deputy Commissioner for Human Food.

Jim Jones assumed that post in September 2023 with a mandate to implement the restructuring program.

It makes no sense

The Cronobacker sakazakii outbreak occurred in part because the FDA did not have enough trained personnel to provide effective oversight of the infant formula industry.

How does it make sense to terminate staffers with special expertise in infant formula oversight?

RFK, Jr., the newly confirmed Secretary for Health and Human Services, has touted his support for healthy eating, for reducing the number of additives in foods, and for tackling the role of processed foods in childhood obesity.

How does it make sense to terminate staffers with expertise in nutrition?

The FDA food safety investigation staff already was spread thin, and recalls and foodborne illnesses were up in 2024 over the previous year.

How does it make sense to terminate food safety response staffers?

FDA’s food program now a headless snake

Just as the body of a rattlesnake will continue to writhe after it is has been decaptitated, the FDA’s human food program will muddle on for a while.

Just don’t expect it to know where it’s going.

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.