Trump cuts target next generation of scientists, public health leaders: report

NEW YORK, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump's plan to shrink the size of the federal work force dealt blows to thousands of civil servants in the past few days, but the cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services, coming on the heels of the coronavirus pandemic, the worst public health crisis in a century, have been especially jarring, reported The New York Times on Tuesday.

"Experts say the firings threaten to leave the country exposed to further shortages of health workers, putting Americans at risk if another crisis erupts," noted the report. "The firings have also excised the next generation of leaders at the CDC (the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), the NIH (the National Institutes of Health), the Food and Drug Administration, and other agencies that the department oversees."

The dismissals have also rattled graduate students eyeing careers in public health and the biomedical sciences, it said, adding that the cuts came as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the prominent vaccine skeptic and newly confirmed health secretary, is starting in his job. Officials at the NIH are especially concerned that he might target more senior employees by asking for their resignations.

"The cuts over the weekend have touched all manner of health workers. They are not only scientists and disease hunters but also administrators who oversee grant proposals, analysts figuring out new ways to cut health care costs and computer specialists who try to improve the government's antiquated systems for tracking health information," added the report.