Elite disease experts are trading microscopes for yoga mats and dog leashes after sweeping purges left Atlanta’s public health sector in freefall.
Thousands of seasoned epidemiologists and infectious disease specialists have fled the agency following the Trump administration’s dramatic staff reductions to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, leaving some of the world’s top medical minds scrambling for work, The New York Times reported Monday night.
Dr. Jennifer McQuiston, 54, a decorated veteran with a veterinary degree who spent years battling emerging zoonotic diseases, ditched her corner office for early retirement and now spends her days at an animal shelter and riding horses.
“It was my calling,” she explained. “I don’t mourn the loss at this moment, because I don’t believe the agency is the same agency I worked in.”
She took early retirement, fearing the agency had departed from its commitment to science.
The exodus has decimated Atlanta’s once-proud public health ecosystem. The CDC workforce plummeted from roughly 13,500 employees at the start of 2025 to fewer than 10,000 by October, according to former agency leaders who resigned in protest. Former epidemiologist Dr. Elizabeth Soda, who developed health screening protocols for immigrants and refugees, fled to Italy with her family after a gunman fired dozens of rounds through CDC headquarters in August.
“We go through massive, real guilt moments,” Soda said. “That’s one of the hardest things being here, to be honest, is knowing what we’ve left behind, who we’ve left behind — family, friends, our country.”
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s controversial vision has left the nation vulnerable to emerging threats like mpox and Zika, critics warn. Public trust in the CDC has cratered to 62 percent, down from 88 percent in 2020.
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