The top US health agency has permanently fired 600 employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), according to a union representing the workers.
Many of the staff were already on paid administrative leave as a part of mass layoffs proposed by Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr in April, according to the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).
The move from the US Department of Health and Human Services finalises employee firings across the agency, including the Division of Violence Prevention and the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity, the union said.
The layoffs come two weeks after a gunman opened fire at the CDC’s headquarters in Atlanta.
In a statement, the AFGE said the firings exacerbated recent trauma experienced by CDC staff after the 8 August shooting, in which a police officer was killed after a gunman fired 500 rounds at the building.
“The cruel decision to move forward with these unlawful separations immediately after a violent attack on campus contradicts their stated commitments to promote the recovery of CDC staff and undermines the stability of our Agency,” the group said.
HHS confirmed the firings to the BBC and referred reporters to Kennedy’s March announcement, in which he said 10,000 workers would be laid off, including 2,400 people at the CDC and others at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
After the proposed layoffs, many CDC employees were placed on paid administrative leave while the courts dealt with legal challenges to the firings.
Last week, a federal judge in Rhode Island refined a July order blocking the administration from firing any CDC employees, instead only banning HHS from firing employees of six CDC divisions.
In announcing the mass layoffs, Kennedy said the changes were aimed at reducing “bureaucratic sprawl” and refocusing the agency on “reversing the chronic disease epidemic”, a key priority of his.
He said the firings would save taxpayers $1.8b (£1.3b) a year.
The wide-ranging layoffs included employees working on the government’s response to infectious diseases, including bird flu, as well as those researching environmental hazards and handling public record requests.
Since taking office, Kennedy, a vaccine critic, has made a number of funding cuts and changes to how the US recommends and regulates immunizations that have angered public health experts.
Earlier this week, a group of more than 750 former and current HHS employees sent a letter to Kennedy accusing him of fuelling violence towards public health workers after the CDC headquarters attack.
They said Kennedy had spread vaccine misinformation and sowed mistrust in public health, contributing to harassment of health officials.
Investigators say the man who fired 500 rounds at the CDC – who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound – blamed a Covid-19 vaccine for making him depressed and suicidal.