A Quarter to a Third
The CDC effectively lost a quarter to a third of its staff in 2025. Nearly 1,300 employees were cut in early waves, with more following. The agency responsible for tracking, preventing, and responding to disease outbreaks operated with a fraction of its capacity during the worst measles outbreak in 30 years.
The administration’s FY2026 budget proposed cutting the CDC by 53%, a net reduction of $3.8 billion. That would have eliminated approximately 42,000 jobs nationwide.
53% budget cut proposed. 61 CDC programs targeted for elimination. Disease surveillance suspended. During a 30-year measles high.
What Was Targeted for Elimination
Over 61 CDC programs were targeted in the proposed budget. These were not obscure research projects. They included cancer prevention programs, diabetes and heart disease prevention, stroke prevention, obesity prevention, global and domestic HIV/AIDS prevention, global immunization programs, and opioid and substance use prevention and recovery programs.
An additional 40 programs at SAMHSA, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, faced elimination. Over 100 public health programs total.
Surveillance Is Stopping
Analysis of surveillance data for reportable diseases has been suspended or delayed. Critical year-end surveillance reports face delays. The system that detects outbreaks before they become epidemics is being degraded at the same time the Health Secretary is removing vaccines from the recommended schedule and promoting debunked health claims.
Public health experts warned that if cuts proceed, the U.S. faces “weakened disease surveillance, reduced vaccination efforts, and staffing shortages that will impact everything from emergency preparedness to chronic disease prevention.”
The George Washington University Milken Institute found that the cuts would harm not only public health but state and local economies that depend on CDC-funded programs for jobs, services, and healthcare infrastructure.
The Connection
The CDC is one piece of a dismantled public health system. The FDA lost 3,500 employees. 383 NIH clinical trials were halted.
The 988 LGBTQ youth crisis line was defunded. The VA lost 40,000 workers.
Each agency cut independently. Each justified on its own terms. The cumulative effect is that the public health infrastructure of the United States, the system built over decades to prevent disease, approve treatments, track outbreaks, and respond to emergencies, is being reduced simultaneously across every agency.
Japan showed what happens when a country stops vaccinating. The UK lost measles elimination after a fraudulent study eroded confidence. The U.S. is doing both at once while also cutting the agency that would detect and respond to the consequences.
Update, July 11, 2026: A U.S. citizen working for a humanitarian organization in Congo tested positive for Ebola, the CDC confirmed on July 11. The CDC said it is coordinating with the person’s employer and U.S. agencies to identify close contacts and limit further spread.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported 1,830 confirmed cases and 648 deaths as of this week, calling it the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak ever recorded on the continent. The outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain, which has no approved vaccine or treatment, and confirmed cases have reached neighboring Uganda.
The Trump administration had planned to transfer Americans exposed to Ebola abroad to a new facility in Kenya, but a Kenyan court order suspended that project. Congo declared the current outbreak on May 15, after the WHO determined the virus had been transmitting for weeks before official detection.
Update, July 29, 2026: A cyclosporiasis outbreak has sickened more than 11,000 people across 41 states, with one cluster traced to iceberg lettuce grown in Mexico and distributed by Taylor Farms — the largest produce supplier in the United States — hospitalizing 98 people in at least 27 states. The FDA’s FoodNet program stopped mandatory tracking of Cyclospora and five other pathogens, including listeria, after the Trump administration cut billions in public health funding at the start of the year.
The CDC laboratory that specializes in Cyclospora was reduced from 11 scientists to three as part of agency-wide layoffs. Measles cases have simultaneously reached a 35-year high with at least 2,300 confirmed infections and three deaths, two of them children, and the U.S. is on track to lose the eradication status it achieved in 2000.
Debra Houry, former CDC chief medical officer who resigned in August 2025 over political interference at the agency, said in a July 29 interview with Democracy Now that both outbreaks are direct consequences of dismantling public health infrastructure. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told ABC News reporter Elizabeth Schulze that the Cyclospora outbreak is “under control” and that no surveillance cuts had occurred, a characterization Houry rejected.
Update, July 31, 2026: The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee advanced Dr. Erica Schwartz’s nomination to be CDC director in a near party-line vote on Thursday. If confirmed by the full Senate, Schwartz, 54, would become the 22nd director of the Atlanta-based agency.
Committee chair Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) backed the nomination after meeting privately with Schwartz following her confirmation hearing, where senators questioned whether she would resist orders from HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that conflicted with scientific consensus. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, voted against her. The National Public Health Coalition, which represents current and former CDC workers, had called on senators to require written commitments from Schwartz on scientific independence, evidence-based vaccine policy, and conflicts of interest before the vote.
The committee also advanced Sean Kaufman’s nomination to oversee federal pandemic preparedness and emergency response by a party-line vote. Schwartz is the third person Trump has nominated to lead the CDC in 18 months, following the withdrawn nomination of Dr. David Weldon and the one-month tenure of Susan Monarez, who was removed after administration officials said she was not aligned with the president’s agenda.
Update, August 5, 2026: The Senate confirmed Dr. Erica Schwartz as CDC director in a 51-44 vote, making her the agency’s first confirmed director since the Trump administration fired Susan Monarez over vaccine policy disputes. Schwartz, 54, holds medical and law degrees and previously served as deputy surgeon general. She is Trump’s third nominee for the position in 18 months.
Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy raised doubts during Schwartz’s July 15 Senate HELP Committee hearing about whether she would follow scientific guidance under administration pressure, then reversed course after a direct conversation with her. The National Public Health Coalition, representing current and former CDC workers, called on Schwartz to protect public health staff and refuse any directive that would compromise public safety.
Schwartz inherits an agency that has lost roughly 3,000 workers to layoffs and resignations since the start of Trump’s second term. She faces an active cyclospora outbreak that has caused at least two deaths in Michigan and the worst measles resurgence in three decades. Dr. Georges Benjamin of the American Public Health Association said the agency “desperately needs stability” and a “steadfast commitment to science.” Reporting by Al Jazeera, Reuters, and the Associated Press.
Sources
- NPR: Months of Tumult and Staff Cuts Take a Toll on the CDC
- Infection Control Today: Nearly 1,300 Cut From CDC With More to Come
- Trust for America’s Health: CDC Budget Would Be Reduced by 53 Percent
- George Washington University: CDC Budget Cuts Harm Public Health and Local Economies
- APHA: Proposed HHS Budget Cuts Put Americans at Risk
- Defend Public Health: Talking Points on CDC Budget Cuts