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Trump administration to fire thousands at health agencies
- bloopernova 2y agoCould someone with an economics background comment on what effects may occur after having a quarter million people out of work at the same time?
- taylodl 2y agoThey probably caught wind of a bad jobs report upcoming and so they're trying to cover it up with mass federal layoffs and say that's the reason it's bad. That would be par for the course for these people, wouldn't it?
- nickthegreek 2y agoVirginia will be the place to watch. Northern Virginia is the home to many federal workers. Over 145k federal civilian employees not to mention contractors. https://virginiamercury.com/2025/02/05/virginia-moves-to-protect-economy-from-federal-workforce-crisis/ https://virginiamercury.com/2025/02/05/virginia-moves-to-pro...
- clamlady 2y ago[dead]
- outside1234 2y agoCue the measles outbreak in 3... 2...!
- itodd 2y agoThere's already an outbreak in Texas.
- rickydroll 2y agoIt's not just measles; don't forget the tuberculosis outbreak in Kansas. https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2025/tuberculosis-in-kansas-the-larger-picture https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2025/tuberculosis-in-kansas-the...
- oldpersonintx 2y ago[dead]
- dubcanada 2y ago[flagged]
- soared 2y agoGeneral normal politics was really never posted to HN since it wasn’t interesting. DOGE/etc very much interesting new phenomenon though and so a valid topic. Wouldn’t mind a discussion topic posted by dang to discuss it, maybe a hn.com/pol/ (only half joking) > Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- greenhearth 2y agoHow is this a "partisan" article? Looks like a regular news piece to me.
- dubcanada 2y agoI mean it's kind of hard to not call it partisan when it starts with "Trump administration". But I may just be tired of going on reddit, X, hackernews, and seeing the exact same news articles. We are losing a lot of half way decent technology articles, because people are more interested in what Musk or Trump is up to. Which is fair.
- greenhearth 2y agoWe going through some crisis and trauma right now, if you haven't noticed. It's bound to spill to this board. Thank you for your patience
- kacesensitive 2y ago>I mean it's kind of hard to not call it partisan when it starts with "Trump administration". ...If it's about the trump administration.. what is it supposed to start with?
- thecopy 2y agoEverything Musk et. al. is doing seems to me to be the analog of a junior developer joining and wanting to rewrite everything.
- tjpnz 2y agoThat's literally the DOGE staff.
- kacesensitive 2y agoMoVe FaSt AnD bReAk ThInGs
- lawn 2y agoAh, allegedly my previous employer is still reeling from one especially motivated individual who ripped through the codebase. Yes, he was let loose without supervision or code review. Fun times.
- avgDev 2y agoWhat is happening at these agencies is absolutely crazy. National parks are understaffed and worried about the upcoming season. It seems the admin just wants to gut everything, and the only reason to me seems privatization. Make all these agencies dysfunctional, tell people look how bad<insert govt. agency here> is, let's get bids from private companies that can do a better job at <x> dollars. I hope this is not the case.
- Ccecil 2y agoSchools and libraries too. In my state (Idaho) there "seems" to be a big push to defund and disrupt the local school systems, libraries [1] and community college board of trustees [2]. There is also legislation that keeps attempting to be pushed to allow public funding to parents who have their kids in private schools [3] This is all part of the "Redoubt" movement [4]. Which sadly...even though I am living literally in the same town as some of the major players I had never heard of it until a friend from Germany sent me a link. I later realized it all made sense when you look at everything as a distinct "movement" instead of "motivated individuals" who were disrupting all these public services. [1] https://cdapress.com/news/2024/jul/05/my-turn-are-we-losing-our-public-libraries/ https://cdapress.com/news/2024/jul/05/my-turn-are-we-losing-... [2] https://www.insidehighered.com/news/governance/accreditation/2025/01/24/north-idaho-college-awaits-its-fate https://www.insidehighered.com/news/governance/accreditation... [3] https://idahoea.org/news/competing-voucher-proposals-first-bill-emerge-during-sessions-early-days/ https://idahoea.org/news/competing-voucher-proposals-first-b... [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Redoubt https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Redoubt
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- andyjohnson0 2y agoLooks like its not just health-related agencies. Many/most people hired by US government agencies in the last two years seem to be being let-go. Some of them will be tech workers, but also engineers, scientists, clinicians, administrators, rangers, educators. People who use this site. "Some 280,000 employees out of the 2.3 million member civilian federal workforce were hired in the last two years, with most still on probation and easier to fire, according to government data." "About 1,200 to 2,000 workers at the Department of Energy were laid off, including hundreds of employees from the office that oversees the nuclear stockpile, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday." https://www.reuters.com/world/us/thousands-fired-trump-musk-take-ax-us-government-offices-2025-02-14/ https://www.reuters.com/world/us/thousands-fired-trump-musk-... Looks like absolute carnage, and its hard to see how the US government is going to maintain its operational capacity. As for the CDC being gutted, better hope these bird flu and measles outbreaks don't do a covid.
- SketchySeaBeast 2y agoWhat a blood bath. > As for the CDC being gutted, better hope these bird flu and measles outbreaks don't do a covid. With RFK in the lead would it honestly matter how many staff they have?
- dubcanada 2y agoDude has been department head for a day? Do we have such little faith that we judge a person before a single stroke of the pen? While historical actions do speak loud, having a bad past does not mean you are a bad person. Nor does it mean your policies will reflect your personal beliefs. There have been tons of individuals who set aside their beliefs and done a fantastic job.
- csoups14 2y agoWe're supposed to withhold judgment on somebody who has directly led to the deaths of several dozen children? Are you really implying there is no one who is better qualified to lead HHS?
- softwaredoug 2y agoWhat’s hard to tell in all this: What is likely illegal vs what is actually the presidents prerogative? Or is it all a test to find that boundary?
- avgDev 2y agoMany actions are illegal, but who is going to stop them? Supreme court is stacked. Congress and house is in republican control.
- stcroixx 2y agoWell, we're pretty unhealthy. These agencies don't seem to have been very successful at making us healthy. Probably time to try another approach.
- SketchySeaBeast 2y agoYou don't start burning things when you only have a concept of a plan for what comes next.
- kacesensitive 2y agoYou don't fix public health by shooting it in the head
- achandlerwhite 2y agoOr: imagine how much worse it would be had we never had these agencies?
- throw16180339 2y agoThis is cutting off your head to cure a migraine.
- hagbard_c 2y agoIt is more like getting rid of the quacks to look for other cures. While success is not guaranteed it has been proven by now that the current approach does not lead to desirable results. By the way, it is quite remarkable how much resistance there is to change in the supposedly 'progressive' opposition to Trump. Those who want to keep things the way they are tend to be called 'conservative' while those who want to shake up things - to make them better or just to change them for change's sake - are called 'progressive'. It looks like the 'progressives' of old have turned into 'conservatives' while the 'conservatives' have taken on more 'progressive' characteristics. This goes to show that party labels and affiliations only go so far when it comes to finding out who stands where and that the silly 'left' vs 'right' dichotomy is decidedly useless to separate 'good' from 'bad', no matter where you consider yourself to stand in this division.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- silexia 2y agoWe need to change the laws making it difficult to fire federal employees, so that we can fire low performers instead of just based on seniority. Previous corrupt laws were passed to only allow firing junior employees, not senior. So this is the only way to shrink the federal government at this point. Make the federal government accountable and allow terminations based on performance.
- dragonwriter 2y ago> We need to change the laws making it difficult to fire federal employees, so that we can fire low performers instead of just based on seniority. Documented individual bad performance and misconduct are the (only, basically) reasons firing nonprobationary civil servants on an individual basis is allowed, seniority is an issue with general reductions in force because of elimination of functions, but isn't the controlling factor in for cause, performance or misconduct, firings. It is, however, illegal to fire civil servants arbitrarily and invoke notional “bad performance” as an excuse; unlike in the private sector, there is a defined process that has the force of law and Constitutional due process rights behind it.
- insane_dreamer 2y agoWe're damaging our future, for what? > One high-level researcher who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that the NIH has effectively shut down a highly competitive intramural research program for undergraduate degree holders before they start graduate or medical school. It’s responsible for the next generation of leaders in biomedical sciences, the researcher said: “These are the best and the brightest to get their training and become world class scientists to compete with China.” The program had about 1,600 people in it last year; more than 1,000 positions will not be filled, the person said.
- insane_dreamer 2y agoMost people aren't aware of ARPA-H but the research it funds is important and potentially highly impactful. It takes a DARPA approach of funding "moonshot" type research in the domain of medicine/health. These are projects that are normally very hard to fund because they are trying to solve hard problems rather than result in some immediate commercial application. But a necessary part of the hard science that lays the foundation for future technological breakthroughs. Very sad to see this laid to wasted by some idiots. > Head of ARPA-H and Biden appointee Renee Wegrzyn told staff Friday morning that she was fired, a source told STAT. The agency, established in 2022 by Biden to work with the private sector on breakthrough medical technology, employs less than 200 workers. Because of the agency’s newness, most employees are considered probationary and could be targeted for layoffs.