by Jill Nolin, Georgia Recorder
May 2, 2025

Shelby Hutton was a biologist studying sexually transmitted diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who was planning to expand her gonorrhea research by starting doctoral studies in the fall.

But in early April, Hutton found herself suddenly unemployed and applying for a job at Starbucks.

As a scientist, Hutton said she had not expected to find herself among the legions of federal workers abruptly fired as part of the Trump administration’s plan to shrink the federal government through mass firings.

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced plans to slash 10,000 job in late March, including 2,400 jobs at the CDC. 

“Hundreds of good scientists and subject matter experts were among the cuts to federal employees,” Hutton said while standing outside the CDC in Atlanta. “This is the exact opposite of what RFK said would happen. I’ll be the first to say that there is a lot of improvement to be had in terms of government efficiency, but I really can’t picture a functional CDC without laboratorians.”

Hutton said she was in the middle of validating tests her team had developed for the molecular surveillance of gonorrhea that is resistant to antibiotics – work she said she doesn’t know of other labs doing – when she received the email dismissing her and her entire laboratory branch.

They didn’t have time to properly store specimens that Hutton described as “priceless.” 

To Hutton, it feels like the deep cuts at the CDC are part of a backlash to the COVID-19 pandemic and lingering anger among some over shutdowns and other safety measures taken to control the spread of the virus. 

“It absolutely feels like we’re the scapegoats. It feels like we’re being attacked,” Hutton said. “And I don’t think people realize how important the work that we do is and how much we care about the work we do in public health.” 

The Office of Personnel Management and the CDC did not respond to questions about the actual number of dismissals since February. 

Tuesday marked Trump’s 100th day in office, but the president has already seen his approval rating suffer in Georgia – a state he won last year after narrowly losing here in 2020.

Trump’s approval rating among Georgia voters is at 43%, according to a poll released Wednesday by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and conducted by the University of Georgia School of Public and International Affairs.

Anger over the cuts to the CDC has shown up at town halls, protests, press conferences and rallies outside the center’s Atlanta campus. Navy blue signs saying “Save the CDC” and “Save Public Health” can be seen in Atlanta front yards. 

And signs of dissatisfaction with the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts to reduce the size of the federal government are also reflected in the AJC’s poll.

A slight majority of the poll’s respondents – 51.5% – said they disapprove of those efforts to reduce the size of the government, many of them saying they strongly disapprove. Only 44% said they approved, with 4.5% unsure. The cuts were not popular with the independent voters polled, with about 55% of them frowning on the efforts.

But 74% of Republican voters surveyed said they enthusiastically back the cuts.

‘Everybody knows that you need CDC’

Sarah Boim, a former communication specialist at the CDC, says she is trying to remain hopeful that the wave of legal challenges in response to the cuts to the federal workforce will lead to her and many of her colleagues getting their jobs back. 

But Boim is also not waiting around to see if that happens.

She and other CDC workers who lost their jobs have formed a group called Fired But Fighting. What started out as a newsletter to disseminate accurate information to workers trying to figure out their next steps has quickly evolved into a broader effort to push back on the cuts through spirited advocacy. 

“We just need people to know how important it is to have public health managed at a federal level,” Boim said. “You cannot privatize public health. You need the money that a government has. You need the money of a country – we’re talking about B with billions – and you also need to be able to coordinate across the states. And you just can’t do that in a private company or an organization.” 

Fired But Fighting made a splash at Sen. Jon Ossoff’s recent town hall in Marietta, where they pressed the senator to do more to push back on the Trump administration.

The Democrat responded by saying the future of the nation’s public health infrastructure ultimately hinges on whether the American people “see and understand that they’re being put at risk” – and vote accordingly. 

Republican state leaders have expressed at least tepid support for the cuts, though one said he was uneasy about the pace.

After the first round in February, Gov. Brian Kemp said “government can stand a little right-sizing.” Suwanee Republican U.S. Rep. Rich McCormick said he asked the White House to slow the pace of the firings after being caught in the crosshairs of an angry town hall, telling the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in February that “I think we’re just moving a little too fast.” Congressman Mike Collins, a Jackson Republican, told WABE in February that the fired workers could go find other work in Georgia. 

Boim, who was fired in February, said she is trying to find another job, broadening the search to even “health adjacent” roles. 

“I have applied to 127 jobs,” she said. “I keep a spreadsheet. I’ve had two canceled interviews, both because they’re worried about federal funding, and a lot of thanks, but no thanks, because the job market is just saturated with people like me.” 

She said she hopes the state’s Republican leaders will come around.

“I think they’re scared. If you’re not on Trump’s side, you’re against him, and I think that they’re scared of getting on his bad side,” Boim said. “I’m sorry, but people need to start being brave. I feel like CDC is a bipartisan issue. Everybody knows that you need CDC.” 

‘Not going quietly’

Jill Daugherty said she knew the CDC’s injury center she worked at was likely poised to lose staffers, but the extent of the cuts left her stunned. The injury center was gutted after last month’s round of cuts, with Daugherty’s traumatic brain injury team wiped out. She thinks the goal is to dismantle the CDC.

“We really didn’t know which teams were going to get cut, so we were just kind of waiting around the whole week before, like, ‘Is it gonna be us? Is it gonna be us?’ And then it was everybody,” Daugherty said.

That’s how Daugherty found herself on the other side of the CDC’s entrance on a recent Tuesday afternoon holding a sign that said, “Firing experts… Ignoring science… CDC deserves better.” She stood on the curb as the passing vehicles – including her former colleagues leaving work for the day – honked their horns at the group of demonstrators.

The Tuesday rallies, organized by retired CDC staffers, have become a ritual since the mass firings started. 

“You’re not just standing up for yourselves. You’re standing up for our country and the best that America represents,” U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, told fired CDC workers during a visit to one of the rallies in April.

Even when facing the prospect of unemployment and an uncertain future, many of the fired CDC workers still focus on the loss to the programs they had dedicated their careers to advancing when they talk about the mass firings.

Aryn Backus was a health communication specialist at the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health until Valentine’s Day, when hundreds of workers were swept up in the first round of dismissals. She said she remained hopeful that the firing would be reversed until her entire office was cut in April. 

“So, I knew that even if I were to get my termination rescinded, there would be no job to go back to,” said Backus, who is the mother of a 1-year-old.

But even then, when standing at a microphone in front of reporters recently, Backus wanted to talk about the work her office did to curb smoking rates – and all the work left to do.

“The impact of these CDC cuts will be felt in public health for years to come. They’re not going to help make America healthy but will decrease public health programs that help save lives,” said Backus, who is also part of Fired But Fighting.

“That’s why the CDC employees are not going quietly. We are fighting back to not only protect civil service, but to protect public health.” 

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com.

The post Fired CDC workers vow to fight against cuts as they find a tight job market outside the agency appeared first on georgiarecorder.com

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

This article critically discusses the Trump administration’s workforce cuts at the CDC, emphasizing the negative impact on scientists, public health, and federal programs. The perspective is sympathetic to federal workers and public health advocates, highlighting their protests and legal challenges. It also quotes Democratic leaders and underscores opposition by many voters, while acknowledging Republican support for the cuts. The coverage leans toward a pro-science, pro-public health federal role stance, typical of center-left viewpoints, while presenting some Republican perspectives without strong editorializing in their favor.