Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Staff Cuts And 'Major Changes' Coming To VA; Funding Cuts Blocked At NIH
The Washington Post: VA Plans To Cut 80,000 Employees, The Latest In Trump’s Efforts To Downsize
The Department of Veterans Affairs announced plans Wednesday to cut roughly 80,000 jobs, more than 15 percent of its employees, the latest in President Donald Trump’s effort to slash the federal workforce. According to a memo obtained by The Washington Post, the cuts are meant to reduce the department’s workforce to just under 400,000 employees, its size in 2019. (Gupta, 3/5)
More on the budget cuts and funding freeze —
Modern Healthcare: NIH Funding Cuts Blocked By Federal Judge
A federal judge blocked the National Institutes of Health’s grant funding cuts that academic health systems warn would stymie research. U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts Judge Angel Kelley on Wednesday granted a motion from attorneys general, medical schools and universities requesting a nationwide preliminary injunction. The injunction replaces a national temporary restraining order Kelley issued Feb. 10, likely setting up a win for the states and hospitals and a possible government appeal. (Kacik, 3/5)
AP: CDC Tells About 180 Fired Employees To Come Back To Work
The nation’s top public health agency says about 180 employees who were laid off two weeks ago can come back to work. Emails went out Tuesday to some Centers for Disease Control and Prevention probationary employees who got termination notices last month, according to current and former CDC employees. ... About 180 people received reinstatement emails, according to two federal health officials who were briefed on the tally but were not authorized to discuss it and spoke on condition of anonymity. (Stobbe, 3/5)
Bloomberg: Musk’s DOGE Cuts Target FDA Lab Guarding US Drug Supply
A key lab that oversees US pharmaceutical safety is in limbo following moves by the Department of Government Efficiency, raising questions about the fate of the lab and the new administration’s approach to expensive but crucial research that aims to keep America’s product supply safe. The lab’s workers said they were notified Wednesday that the facility wouldn’t be closed, but the lab remains on the government’s target list. Higher-ups with knowledge of the lab’s work have advocated to keep it open, people familiar with the situation said. (Edney, 3/5)
Stat: Stand Up For Science Rallies Show Trump Protests Gaining Momentum
Since Donald Trump took office in January, researchers across the U.S. have been waiting for scientific leaders to forcefully speak out against the administration’s grant freezes, research funding cuts, and targeting of diversity in their field. Frustrated that there seemed to be no large-scale movement coalescing, Colette Delawalla, a graduate student in clinical psychology, took matters into her own hands. (Oza, 3/6)
On DEI and transgender health —
Politico: State Department Further Scrutinizes Foreign Aid For DEI, Climate And Transgender Projects
The State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor launched a review of its foreign assistance projects Wednesday to determine if they fund climate, transgender or diversity, equity and inclusion-related initiatives, according to an internal email obtained by POLITICO. The results of that screening via a questionnaire to organizations that receive State funding may determine the fate of the remainder of aid projects that President Donald Trump froze for 90 days with an executive order in January. (Kine, 3/5)
Stat: Trump DEI Crackdown Creates Collateral Damage In Medical AI
During his confirmation hearings, health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called on technology to solve America’s rural health care crisis. “President Trump is determined to end the hemorrhage of rural hospitals, and he’s asked me to do that through use of AI, through telemedicine,” Kennedy told senators, invoking the example of an AI nurse “that has diagnostics as good as any doctor.” (Palmer, 3/6)
Axios: Pre-Trump CDC Website Revived By Volunteers
A team of volunteer archivists has recreated the Centers for Disease Control website, called RestoredCDC.org, as it appeared the day President Trump was inaugurated. A federal judge last month required the HHS to restore webpages and datasets that had been altered or taken offline to comply with executive orders that Trump issued on DEI and gender identity, but several links are broken and the pages are not easy to locate through web searches. (Singh, 3/5)
