The Knox County Health Department has laid off seven employees ‒ six full-time and one part-time ‒ after the federal government suddenly cut grants that paid their salaries, Knox News has learned. The employees' salaries were paid for by a federal Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Prevention and Control of Emerging Infectious Diseases grant designed to fight infectious disease outbreaks.

State and local public health departments are bracing themselves as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pulls back about $11.4 billion in grants that were allocated to state and community health departments during the Covid-19 pandemic response.

Last week, the federal government pulled $226 million in funding from the MDH. Tuesday’s layoffs at the state health agency are “a direct consequence” of the funding cut.

Democratic attorneys general and governors in 23 states and Washington, DC, have filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Health and Human Services and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., alleging that the department’s sudden rollback of $12 billion in public health funding was unlawful and harmful.

Mass firings took place today at federal health agencies amid the Trump administration's slashing of federal jobs.

A group of Democratic-led states on Tuesday sued Republican U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to challenge its cancellation of $11 billion in federal grants the states were allocated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Attorneys general and other officials from 23 states and the District of Columbia are suing the Trump administration for its decision to claw back $11 billion that went to public health departments fo

Attorney General Nick Brown joined 23 other states in trying to stop $11 billion in cuts to disease tracking, substance abuse treatment and mental health care.

Andy Beshear said the president can’t ignore laws passed by Congress, calling the cuts a threat to public health. The lawsuit claims the move could shut down local programs for disease tracking, vaccinations,

CDC, FDA, NIH are among agencies shedding thousands of workers. Some senior leaders and entire divisions are being cut.

Layoff notices began Tuesday, impacting workers across multiple agencies. The FDA will lose 3,500 jobs, the CDC 2,400, the National Institutes of Health 1,200, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services 300, according to figures released by HHS.

Thousands of people responsible for tracking health trends and disease outbreaks, conducting and funding medical research, monitoring the safety of food and medicine, and administering health insurance programs for nearly half of the country were laid off Tuesday at the nation's top health agencies.

The Trump administration began mass layoffs of 10,000 staffers at U.S. health agencies on Tuesday, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation, with security guards barring entry to some employees just hours after they received dismissal notices.

Switzer Memorial Building in Washington on Tuesday.Credit...Roberto Schmidt/Agence France-Presse — Health job cuts: The Trump administration laid off thousands of federal health workers, dismissing senior leaders and top scientists in a purge that outside experts and former officials said would cause an immeasurable loss of expertise.

The layoffs included several top officials and affected agencies responsible for overseeing the nation's food and drug safety, as well as those fighting disease. Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr announced last week that 10,

Another round of “deferred resignation” offers is part of the Trump administration’s stepped-up effort to rapidly downsize the government.

The U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee will on April 10 hold a hearing on the reorganization of the Department of Health and Human Services, its chairman Senator Bill Cassidy said in a statement.

Employees of the massive U.S. Department of Health and Human Services began getting dismissal notices in a major overhaul expected to ultimately lay off up to 10,000 people​.