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Monday Mini: How Job Cuts at the CDC Hurt Women · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Steff.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I've never told you a production of by Heart Radio.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: And today just quick content warning. We're talking about being
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: laid off, fired and just how much that can hurt,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: and some of the more recent things in our health
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: system here in the US, but nothing to in depth
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  Speaker 1: that being said. Today is April tenth, twenty twenty five.
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  Speaker 1: And also, Samantha, I hope I'm not stepping on your
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: toes on this one because you have another topic on
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  Speaker 1: the docket that I think is related to this, But
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  Speaker 1: we will come back and talk about that more because
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  Speaker 1: this is sort of an overview. This is a quick overview,
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  Speaker 1: all right. So April is sexual assault Prevention month, and
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  Speaker 1: to celebrate it, the Department of Health and Human Services,
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  Speaker 1: or HHS here in the United States fired somewhere around
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  Speaker 1: ten thousand people on April first, including most of the
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  Speaker 1: folks who focused on preventing sexual assault and violence. Simultaneously,
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  Speaker 1: the person in charge of preventing domestic violence at the
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  Speaker 1: HHS was put on leave. As we have discussed in
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  Speaker 1: previous episodes, these issues are things that disproportionately impact women,
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  Speaker 1: and these programs which were mandated by Congress had bipartisan support,
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  Speaker 1: and these cuts have been devastating, confusing, and have really
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  Speaker 1: hamstrung programs that depend on federal funding to operate effectively.
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  Speaker 1: This is one of many waves of layoffs and firings
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  Speaker 1: that have swept the country, including in our health organizations
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  Speaker 1: alike the CDC or the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
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  Speaker 1: Many who were fired have spoken out anonymously in fear
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  Speaker 1: of retaliation, and the estimates of how many people were
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  Speaker 1: fired range from one fifth to one fourth of the workforce,
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  Speaker 1: which is one of the biggest on record. Some have
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  Speaker 1: recounted getting an unceremonious email on a Saturday night telling
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  Speaker 1: them that they were fired. According to NPR quote, the
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  Speaker 1: division works on prevention strategies for sexual assault, childhood abuse,
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  Speaker 1: and gun violence, among other forms of violence. Research and
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  Speaker 1: programming staff in all of these areas got cut. Not
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  Speaker 1: only that, according to The Guardian, divisions like the quote
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  Speaker 1: Women's Health and Fertility branch of the Division of Reproductive
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  Speaker 1: Health or the Violence Prevention, Practice and Translation branch in
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  Speaker 1: the Division of Violence Prevention had been hit really hard
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  Speaker 1: and the whole team at Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System,
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  Speaker 1: our Prams was fired, The Office of Health Equity was dismantled,
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  Speaker 1: and just a reminder of all high income countries, the
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  Speaker 1: US has the highest maternal mortality rate and this also
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  Speaker 1: disproportionately impacts black women. They also cut the Assisted Reproductive
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  Speaker 1: Technology Program, which is about helping people who want to
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  Speaker 1: have kids have kids. So was the CDC team they
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  Speaker 1: were cut that provided contraceptive guidelines for obgyns around the
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  Speaker 1: country that they would reference and that were really helpful
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  Speaker 1: for things like if people were taking medication or something
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  Speaker 1: like that. The Intimate Partner Violence Prevention Team was taken
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  Speaker 1: apart as well. Many who have been fired have reported
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  Speaker 1: that it feels very targeted and telling as to what
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  Speaker 1: is important to this administration and what is not. And
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  Speaker 1: many make clear that there was not just a job
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  Speaker 1: to them, it was something that they cared about and
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  Speaker 1: that this is decades of work and experience being essentially erased.
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  Speaker 1: Like a lot of things were seeing. The firings were
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  Speaker 1: both in incredibly haphazard. Some reported being fired on the
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  Speaker 1: spot if their badge was quote loose in their office
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  Speaker 1: and incredibly targeted based on what the person was working on.
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  Speaker 1: And on top of that, most who were fired had
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  Speaker 1: till the end of the day to pack their things
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  Speaker 1: and go, which is not good if they were handling
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  Speaker 1: anything biohazardous or shutting down all labs safely, or even
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  Speaker 1: telling anyone like here's how this needs to run safely,
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  Speaker 1: very dangerous. Any research databases that featured our reference to
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  Speaker 1: sex or gender or taken down for a bit too
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  Speaker 1: to replace those terms, even in scientific research papers. At
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  Speaker 1: one point, agency sites referencing a gender based violence and
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  Speaker 1: violence and racism were also taken down. On top of that,
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  Speaker 1: despite the fact that the CDC recently received two hundred
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  Speaker 1: and ten million dollars from Congress for local grants over
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  Speaker 1: five years for their rate prevention and education program, that
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  Speaker 1: the staff that distributes that the funds has been fired,
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  Speaker 1: so the money is sort of in limbo, not assured. Basically,
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  Speaker 1: no one knows how to access it. A lot of
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  Speaker 1: organizations tackling these issues have reported being in a holding
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  Speaker 1: pattern as well, because basically they can't access this money
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  Speaker 1: that they were promised. Some Democrats have pushed back, writing
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  Speaker 1: a letter to RFK Junior, who is incredibly the Secretary
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  Speaker 1: of Health. So far, Republicans have been quiet as for
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  Speaker 1: Kennedy himself. He has said some of the firings were
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  Speaker 1: mistakes and that was always the plan. So great plan,
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  Speaker 1: love weld.
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  Speaker 2: We meant to mess up.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was all obviously, And some people have got like, whoopsie, Daisy,
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  Speaker 1: we didn't mean to fire you. You can come back.
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  Speaker 1: But what kind of like job security is that?
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  Speaker 2: Like right?
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  Speaker 1: Oh oh, and yeah, okay, this is huge for a
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  Speaker 1: lot of reasons. Labs around the world send the CDC samples.
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  Speaker 1: If something new pops up that hospitals don't know what
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  Speaker 1: it is, they contact the CDC. Many of the fired
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  Speaker 1: employees are worried that people will die from these cuts,
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  Speaker 1: and just again to reiterate like that's so much experience
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  Speaker 1: and research is getting erased.
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  Speaker 2: Uh.
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  Speaker 1: But a lot of the people are leading protests, raising awareness,
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  Speaker 1: joining or starting organizations the people who were fired, which
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  Speaker 1: you know, I don't. It's sad that that's the situation
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  Speaker 1: we're in, but they're still fighting and they're still trying
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  Speaker 1: to get the message out there. But you know, the
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  Speaker 1: CDC is based in Atlanta, so we saw a lot
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  Speaker 1: a lot of this and I have people that friends
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  Speaker 1: that work at the CDC, and it just has been devastating,
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  Speaker 1: and no one knew who was getting fired or when
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  Speaker 1: or why. So it's pretty you can just see the
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  Speaker 1: harm of it, like you can physically see the harm
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  Speaker 1: of it without even knowing all of this. That being said,
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  Speaker 1: you can see the recent interview we did with Evan
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  Speaker 1: the bioethicist about ways you can get information outside of
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  Speaker 1: because I had to look something up on the CDC
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  Speaker 1: the other day and I was like, oh no, what
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  Speaker 1: if this isn't right, I don't know anymore.
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  Speaker 2: Right, Well, there's definitely a lot of conversation about who
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  Speaker 2: all is being fired, how many people are being fired,
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  Speaker 2: why they're being fired, is this actually helpful? And the
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  Speaker 2: fact that you know, diseases like measles are coming back
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  Speaker 2: and kids are dying, but no one seems to really
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  Speaker 2: mind the few that are dying.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, And then I read I didn't read. I did
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  Speaker 1: read the article, but I only read this one article.
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  Speaker 1: So I read kids were overdosing on vitamin A because
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  Speaker 1: it's supposed to help them not get measles, And I'm like,
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  Speaker 1: this is this is a mess. This is a mess, a.
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  Speaker 2: Little horrible idea. I mean, vitamin's sure to a certain degree,
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  Speaker 2: but there's a reason for doctors there is, and doctors
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  Speaker 2: are also the ones who discovered like the helpfulness of
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  Speaker 2: vitamin a.
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  Speaker 1: So yep, yeah, so we're gonna have to dig into
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  Speaker 1: this more. It's still the fallout is on going and
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  Speaker 1: still confusing. And like I said, I know Samantha, you
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: had one of your topics coming up is related. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: so we'll be talking about this, but in the meantime,
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: listeners have let us know if you have any thoughts
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: about this. If you were impacted by this, you can
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: email us at Hello at stuff I've Never Told You
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: dot com. You can find us on Blue Sky at
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: mom Stuff podcast, or in Instagram and TikTok at Stuff
• 9:24
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• 9:25
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• 9:27
  Speaker 1: can get wherever you get your books. Thanks so always
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: star a super producer Christina or executive producer My and
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: a contributor Joey. Thank you and thanks to you for listening.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Stuff I've Never Told You is production of by Heart Radio.
• 9:35
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