After undergoing layoffs earlier this year, hundreds of previously fired staff at the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are now being asked to return to work.
Employees who worked for the National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention; the National Center for Environmental Health; the Immediate Office of the Director; and the Global Health Center were reportedly sent reinstatement notices this month.
When reached for confirmation on Monday, the press secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Emily Hilliard, referred Capital B Atlanta to a Fox News post but did not offer any further details on the rehiring process.
In April, roughly 2,400 CDC employees were laid off due to cuts across federal health agencies, according to a count at the time. This reduction in workforce had also been coupled with a decrease in communication to the public, as HHS instructed the CDC and other health agencies earlier this year to pause any collaboration with people outside the agency.
HIV research and prevention advocacy groups warned that the staffing cuts to the CDC’s Division of HIV Prevention would debilitate the country’s efforts to reduce the number of HIV cases.
According to the CDC, Georgia had the second-highest HIV diagnosis rate and the second-highest rate of HIV-related deaths in 2023 in the U.S.
Georgia had the highest rate of new HIV infections in 2022, and despite constituting about 32% of Georgia’s population, Black people accounted for approximately 71% of new HIV diagnoses in 2021.
The reduction of employees across the CDC has also affected other areas of concern for Black residents. Back in April, three employees — two of whom had recently received layoff notices — told Capital B Atlanta that the CDC’s labor force reductions in Atlanta were concentrated in areas of health study that have an outsized impact on Black people, including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, gun violence, and youth violence.
The National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and Tuberculosis Prevention will see the greatest number of its workers rehired out of the four divisions, with 214 returning, according to Fox News. Included in that group is the agency’s Division of HIV Prevention.
“HHS is streamlining operations without compromising mission-critical work. Enhancing the health and well-being of all Americans remains our top priority,” Hilliard wrote in the email to Capital B Atlanta.
But the long-term impact of the previous firings remains a concern, as HIV experts said that damage to ongoing HIV research may be irreversible as the disruption of projects led to a loss of valuable data.
The abrupt dismissals halted the final stages of national surveys being conducted on HIV, potentially rendering two years’ worth of data from 30,000 participants unusable and wasting around $72 million in taxpayer funds, according to a report by KFF Health News.
Additionally, the Trump administration’s fiscal year 2026 budget proposes significant changes to HIV programs, as it eliminates the CDC’s HIV prevention and surveillance initiatives.
“We urgently call on Congress to reject these cuts in order to ensure that states and community-based organizations have the resources to prevent HIV, which is still a serious infectious disease and results in about 32,000 new cases each year,” said Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute, in a press release earlier this month.
