Trump’s 10 000 job cuts spark chaos in US health services
The fallout from the savage cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services continues, as Mun-Keat Looi reports On 27 March the US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, abruptly announced the termination of 10 000 jobs at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), with 10 000 more cut through early retirement and buyouts.1 The repercussions became clearer this week as employees received their notice on 1 April—or turned up to work to find their security passes had been deactivated. Kennedy said that HHS was being “recalibrated to emphasize prevention, not just sick care.” On X he wrote, “The reality is clear: what we’ve been doing isn’t working.2 Two senators, Bill Cassidy and Bernie Sanders, invited Kennedy to a 10 April hearing to explain the restructuring. A HHS spokesperson told Politico that Kennedy had yet to accept the invitation. As employees were served notice by email early on 1 April, many staff in high ranking posts found themselves reassigned and facing relocat
