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ByStephen I. Feller
Fact checked byCarol L. DiBerardino, MLA, ELS

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February 20, 2025
3 min read
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CDC disease detectives ‘remain in their positions,’ agency says

ByStephen I. Feller
Fact checked byCarol L. DiBerardino, MLA, ELS

Key takeaways:

  • The Trump administration terminated roughly 1,300 positions at the CDC.
  • Although EIS officers were reportedly included among the cuts, the agency said none have lost their jobs.

Despite recent reports, officers in the CDC’s famed Epidemic Intelligence Service — often referred to as “disease detectives” — have not been fired and continue to investigate outbreaks and public health concerns, according to the agency.

“To date, all of the officers in CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) remain in their positions,” the CDC told Healio in a statement.

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Former EIS officer Paige A. Armstrong, MD, MPH, conducts environmental sampling for Candida auris. Image: Matthew Stuckey, CDC

The statement followed reports that the number of EIS officers had been at least halved as part of the efforts by President Donald J. Trump and Elon Musk to reduce government spending.

The EIS was established by the CDC in 1951 to train disease detectives to investigate public health threats in the United States and globally. EIS officers helped launch smallpox eradication efforts in the 1960s, discovered the cause of Legionnaire’s disease in the 1970s, published the first report of HIV/AIDS in the 1980s, investigated West Nile virus in the 1990s and the anthrax attacks in the 2000s, and responded to outbreaks of Ebola and Zika virus in the 2010s. More than 100 EIS officers deployed to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Each year, a new class of officers starts the 2-year fellowship, including many who embed within state health departments. Some take positions in various CDC departments, and many remain at the agency when their fellowship is over. In 2022, the CDC partnered with the Infectious Diseases Society of America for a 4-year fellowship comprising a 2-year infectious diseases fellowship, followed by a 2-year stint in the EIS.

Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has targeted nearly every agency of the federal government. Experts have raised concern that cuts to HHS — including to the CDC, FDA and NIH — will seriously affect staffing, research, data and the ability of the U.S. public health structure to function.

The administration announced that roughly 1,300 probationary CDC employees had been terminated — an estimated 10% of the agency’s staff, which the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology said in a press release could make controlling infectious diseases more difficult.

“In the midst of a severe flu season, and as a potentially deadly avian flu outbreak threatens to raise the stakes for public health even further, firing thousands of highly skilled employees — including doctors — will make Americans sicker, weaker and more vulnerable to avoidable death,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Democratic ranking member on the House Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Subcommittee, said in a press release.

The incoming 2025 class of EIS officers may be as much half the size of previous years, former principal deputy director of the CDC and retired U.S. Public Health Service Rear Admiral Anne Schuchat, MD, told Healio.

The CDC did not respond to a request for comment from Healio on the size of the 2025 class or whether the scheduled application period for the 2026 class will open in March.

According to reports, cuts have also been made at the Laboratory Leadership Service, which Schuchat said is the “laboratory equivalent” of the EIS, as well as other CDC public health and training programs such as the Presidential Management Fellows and public health associate program.

“All of these groups are pipeline programs that help reinvigorate the public health and public service workforce, bringing innovation, up-to-date training and talent to what has been an aging cohort of federal workers,” Schuchat said. “They have lower salaries than long-term employees and hold tremendous promise. It may be pennywise, but [it is] incredibly foolish to terminate these categories of workers.”

References:

Sources/Disclosures

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Source:

Healio Coverage

Disclosures: Schuchat reports no relevant financial disclosures.

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