The New York Times is clutching the pearls over head of OMB, Russ Vought's first round of reduction in force (RIF) notices to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In what the NYT journalist is calling a "Friday Night Massacre," The Gray Lady appears highly disturbed that D.C. "disease detectives" and high-ranking scientists were notified on Friday that they had drawn the short straw.
If the Democrats aren't already aware, the Schumer Shutdown has officially met MAMR (Mess Around and Meet Reality). So far the CDC has been hardest hit and it's not sitting well with the media experts.
Read It Here: Here We Go: Russ Vought's Big Announcement About Gov't Jobs Being Cut Because of Shutdown
Trump Rips Chuck for Gloating Over Schumer Shutdown: 'They'll Get a Taste of Their Own Medicine'
The RIFs have begun.
— Russ Vought (@russvought) October 10, 2025
This is from the NYT piece.
It was unclear on Friday how many C.D.C. workers were affected. But it was the latest blow to an agency that has been wracked by mass resignations, a shooting at its Atlanta headquarters in August and the firing of its director under pressure from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Layoff notices landed in the email inboxes of C.D.C. employees shortly before 9 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, notifying employees that their duties had been deemed unnecessary or “virtually identical” to those being performed elsewhere in the agency. Scientists, including leaders, in offices addressing respiratory diseases, chronic diseases, injury prevention and global health were among those affected.
The staff of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the journal that reports on health trends and emerging infectious threats, was also laid off. The publication’s storied history includes a June 1981 report that five previously healthy gay men were treated for an unusual pneumonia — the first hint of the AIDS epidemic.
Roughly 70 Epidemic Intelligence Service officers — the so-called “disease detectives” who respond to outbreaks around the globe — received layoff notices, according to a person familiar with them. The service was spared during an earlier round of layoffs in February.
BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Dozens of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice: pic.twitter.com/UXDRkFyGEz
— Sheryl Gay Stolberg (@SherylNYT) October 11, 2025
According to the NYT, an officer of the local union, American Federation of Government Employees, was informed that the CDC's human resource staff members who were furloughed because of the government shutdown had to come back in order to send the layoff notices out.
Just witness the whining here.
The C.D.C. layoffs are part of a round of cuts across the government to fulfill President Trump’s threats to use the shutdown to shrink the federal government. But for the nation’s public health agency, which has been a primary target of Mr. Kennedy, they were the latest crisis in a year of upheaval.
What NYT considers "threats," most Americans consider a promise and a good start. Comments on the NYT's X post say it all:
I say good riddance. During the entire pandemic they never published all cause mortality parsed out by age, sex, and number of covid vaccinations which was their job. The UK ONS actually did so and it was quite helpful to discern the effects of the mRNA vaccines. pic.twitter.com/UsvCn7dwg3
— Camillus de Lellis (@CamillusLellis) October 11, 2025
And let's face it: the stench of the CDC's COVID pandemic handling lingers strongly in the air.
I don’t care if the people who went along with triple masking, social distancing, and there’s no such thing as developing natural immunity are unemployed.
— WuTangFund (@WuTangFund) October 11, 2025
As much as some would like Americans to forget the CDC's horrible betrayal during the pandemic, it's just not going to happen. The only ones shedding tears over these RIFs are the CDC human resources staff and the NYT. Oh, and here's a WaPo reporter also sounding alarm bells over career scientists being shown the door.
The CDC official who was leading the measles response and was RIFd has more than 28 yrs experience as the senior USG official leading outbreaks on Ebola, Marburg virus, and mpox. 2/4
— LenaSun (@bylenasun) October 11, 2025
It is not as though they were not warned, as my colleague Nick Arama reported on Friday.
Bottom line? It's all on the Democrats. They can't say it isn't — they're the ones holding up the government.
Trump is forcing their hand if they try to prolong this. And those who have long been pushing for reducing the government are all in favor of this today.
[...]
Vought's announcement has now put the Democrats in a box. Either they stop the foolishness, or more government jobs get the axe. Looks like the Democrats have miscalculated, just a bit. And of course, a legal action is already underway from AFGE, the largest federal employee union.
Some anonymous CDC employees who were RIFfed are seeing an ironic pattern to the announcement, according to the NYT story linked above.
Several C.D.C. employees, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation, described the mood Friday night as grim. Some noticed a pattern: This latest round of layoffs came on the eve of the Indigenous Peoples’ Day holiday weekend, while previous cuts to federal health agencies were announced on Valentine’s Day and April Fools’ Day.
The layoff notices, signed by Tom Nagy, the chief human capital officer at the Department of Health and Human Services, arrived with 10 attachments, including information about severance pay, how to file an appeal to overturn the layoffs and a “guide to career transition,” according to copies of the documents obtained by The New York Times.
What "retaliation"? They've already been laid off. All that's needed is for them to go gently into that good night and dust off their CVs; something that millions of Americans have to do on a regular basis. It's amazing how stunning and brave these people are not. These now-former government employees get to experience what the rest of the country already knows well and more often than not, comes out on the other end the better for it. Let's hope these folks take that fat pension, invest it wisely--and grow a thick skin.
Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.
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