More than 400 CDC employees can be called back to work in April: NPR in April

Federal civil servants seem to have “revoked” the layoffs of more than 400 employees of the centers for the control and prevention of diseases on Wednesday, which had been abruptly released months ago, which could restore the entire staff of a laboratory that pursues viral hepatitis and most employees in one of the environmental health departments of the CDC.

The workers belonged to thousands, which on April 1, as part of a violence of the agency, rejected Department of Health and Human Services, most of which are still unemployed.

The employees of the National Center for HIV, viral hepatitis, STD and TB prevention made up 214 of the employees that they “receive the withdrawal of RIF notifications,” said an e -mail to the group of their incumbent director Dr. Renáta Elington, which was checked by NPR. The two laboratories of the department that dealt with Viral hepatitis And sexually transmitted diseases had been completely closed, although some of these scientists had carried out illness monitoring in contrast to all other laboratories in the world.

More than 150 people who worked for the National Center for Environmental Health were also among the employees who were re -established, such as three CDC employees familiar with the cuts. The Department of Environmental Sciences and Practice of the Center, which includes employees in Atlanta, who work on asthma and air quality, environment Emergencies And Lead poisoning prevention can be set almost completely, two employees of the NPR said.

At least 95 employees from other CDC departments make up the rest of the employees who were notified on June 11, two CDC employees familiar with the cuts.

HHS announced CDC employees on Wednesday afternoon by e -mail from which copies of NPR were received. The E -Mail said that the agency had “revoked” the “impending reduction of the power” complaints that the employees had previously received. It was not explained why HHS was reinstated more than two months after his reinstatement of hundreds of employees in another e -mail that their jobs are “either unnecessary or practically identical to duties that were carried out elsewhere in the agency”.

Ellington, the director of the group, who is most often affected by the HHS baking track, told her employees that she herself didn’t know what was taken into account in the decision or why certain employees received the notification, “and advised the employees that the information may not be final.

HHS did not immediately answer the NPR’s request for a comment on the reason why it revoked the communications from the employees. In April, HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recognized about a fifth of the cuts at HHS were made unintentionally And some people would offer their jobs again.

Until May Kennedy announced These 328 former workers in another department of the CDC, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, were reinstated.

The reactions to the news of workers from the CDC were mixed. Some scientists said that they were happy to do their work again. Other workers said they were confused about the importance of the e -mails and the consequences of the decision.

“I think people are very tacitly hopefully that this means that they can get their work back and continue to serve in a way that they love,” said Kathryn Sisler, health scientist at the department for environmental health and practice that the e -mail received the e -mail on Wednesday. “But there was so much instability and chaos that many people would hesitate to say that they are good news.”

Before Sisler was released in April, she worked with municipalities in several states to help people affect the results of climate change, such as the increased heat. The turbulence that HHS had caused two months ago by closing her department has already bothered this effort, she said.

“Some states and places have already decided to take people because they were not sure whether the grants would continue,” said Sisler. “Really just a lot of valuable data and information that has been lost and not used, especially since we are now looking at the heat time, which is pretty fatal.”

The reversal of the layoffs would also bring logistical challenges for some affected employees, said Sisler. She and some other members of the division already moved away from Atlanta, where they were nearby in the CDC headquarters, she said. Other employees had accepted other jobs or offered them.

“It’s a step in the right direction, but it doesn’t feel like a victory that lies on solid ground,” said Sisler.

The employees of the National Center for HIV, viral hepatitis, STD and TB prevention confirmed that the rest of the activity, while the employees did not work in April, had also caused damage in some of their laboratories. At least one machine would have to need repairs, said two CDC employees NPR, and some outbreaks of diseases had not been properly tracked. Since the end of April, the health workers in Florida have not been able to confirm additional cases in this state without the help of the hepatitis laboratory of the CDC as part of an ongoing breakout of hepatitis C in this state, said another worker at the CDC. The employees asked not to be identified because they said they feared retaliation.

Experts in public health repeated the mixed feelings of the employees.

“It is great to see that the importance of these employees is a certain recognition of crucial importance for America’s public health and that they are restored to continue their important work,” said Carmen Marsit, researcher and professor of the Emory University of the Rollins School of Public Health.

But “there are still many people who are not being set again,” he added. “And so I think that there are still concerns about what is missing.”

Scott Becker, CEO of the Association of Public Health Laboratories, a group that works closely with some of the previously closed laboratories, said that he was “happily amazed” to learn from the HHS -E emails.

“I am concerned about how many of the people have already moved or could continue and how many people really have to go through the uncertainty,” said Beckler. “But all in all, it’s good news and I’ll take it.”

Yuki Noguchi and Selena Simons-Dufin contribution to this report.

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