Egg on their faces: Musk-Trump operatives scramble after “accidental” firing of H5N1 responders.

Hi everyone,

Today’s installment is once again a few quicker hits, designed to help us keep up with a number of things happening. We’ve got news and updates on Trump administration debacles at the USDA, the CDC, USAID, and the FDA. I hope it’s helpful!

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1. Musk and Trump fire H5N1 workers, but claim it was an accident.

The average price of eggs in the United States is nearly $8 per dozen. In an entirely related story, H5N1 bird flu has ravaged the US poultry population since last year. So, this would seem to have been a pretty bad time for the Musk-Trump Project to Destroy Important Parts of the US Federal Government For No Reason™️ to accidentally fire workers at the USDA who were assigned to combatting H5N1. As reported by NBC News, the Trump administration was already trying to undo the self-imposed mess and bring these professionals back to work. Hopefully, it will be easier to find these wrongly terminated public servants than has been the case for the nuclear scientists whom the administration also “accidentally” fired last week and has had trouble tracking down. It’s lovely that the administration seems to understand the ineptitude of some of its prior actions, but a far better strategy would be to actually study the federal government and its functions before attempting to annihilate it.

2. Georgia Governor seems to be just fine with CDC firings by Musk-Trump. Democratic Senators less so.

The Republican Governor of Georgia Brian Kemp said that he supports efforts to “rightsize” the US government, according to Fox5 Atlanta. That apparently includes the 1,300 CDC employees there who were unceremoniously sacked over the weekend without cause, adequate justification, or careful consideration of the public health consequences. In contrast, the state’s two Democratic Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock came out against the moves.

Meanwhile, the CDC official who sent me the link to the local story above mentioned to me that a couple of hundred supporters gathered outside the CDC yesterday, “cheering and thanking us.” According to my source there, it was “nice to see this.”

We here at Inside Medicine strongly support our friends at the CDC—and at various HHS agencies!

3. USAID cuts already being felt in North Carolina (not to mention Malawi).

A story in North Carolina’s News and Observer caught my eye. It’s an early readout of how the massive and unexplained cuts to USAID-funded programs are already harming people in the state. Indeed, those harmed include the beneficiaries of these projects in nations like Malawi (and other partners we’ve covered here) and local businesses that have received billions of dollars in federal grants that fund important humanitarian work.

Various companies and organizations in “The Triangle” region of North Carolina (Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill) have been affected, the article reports in detail. According to the News and Observer, 200 workers from Durham’s FHI 360 were furloughed and RTI International planned to lay off 61 of its workers.

The economic losses—to say nothing of the cruelty of cutting these programs—will likely feel like a betrayal to people in a state like North Carolina, which narrowly went to Trump in the 2024 election.

4. Head of FDA’s food division resigns, citing futility.

According to Bloomberg, the head of the food division at the US FDA resigned yesterday. The now former food lead at the FDA said that after the “indiscriminate” cuts at the agency, staying on board would be “fruitless.”

Among those fired remotely by Musk-Trump operatives were seasoned professionals who, per Bloomberg, included experts with “highly technical expertise in nutrition, infant formula, food safety response…” and who “review potentially unsafe ingredients in food.” This seems rather unwise, given our recent national shortage in infant formula, to cite just one example. When the infant formula shortage occurred, a massive government response was required, including action at the FDA.

Snarky Corner, with Dr. Jeremy.

I’ve noticed that the Musk-Trump orbit likes firing people whose jobs they haven’t bothered to understand. Meanwhile, by some miraculous coincidence, nobody has suggested cutting government contracts with SpaceX. (My personal support for sending humans to Mars is rapidly diminishing by the day; if we aren’t going to keep our fellow humans alive overseas with PEPFAR-funded HIV drugs, I’m suddenly a lot less interested in spending money sending a bunch of adrenaline junkies to do science that a bunch of NASA skateboards rovers already do for much cheaper.) Along these lines, here’s a snarky comment from yours truly that I posted on Threads yesterday…

That’s all for now. If you have information about any of the unfolding stories we are following, please email me or find me on Signal.

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