The mass layoffs of federal workers on Friday night swept up the top two leaders of the federal measles response team, even as the nation grapples with the most cases recorded since 2000, when measles was declared eliminated in the United States.
The layoffs also included dozens of other agency scientists with expertise in infectious diseases that have pandemic potential.
But after The New York Times reported the dismissals, a federal health official said many of them had been fired in error and would be brought back. The official spoke anonymously on Saturday in order to disclose internal discussions.
Trump administration officials said that layoffs earlier this year at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were needed to reduce bloat and keep its focus on infectious diseases. And those layoffs did spare most infectious disease teams.
But on Friday night, the administration fired hundreds of scientists, including those working to halt measles and an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Also cut was a team that supports surveillance of infectious diseases, as well as leaders of the C.D.C. center that oversees immunization and respiratory diseases.
The administration fired members of the Epidemic Intelligence Service, the elite corps of “disease detectives” who are typically deployed to the sites of outbreaks. Officials also dismissed the team that puts together the C.D.C.’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a prestigious publication that communicates the agency’s work on recommendations and outbreaks.
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The post Trump Administration Will Rehire Scores of Experts Fired in Error appeared first on New York Times.
