’If You Can Keep It’: The Federal Health Firings

The nation's health administration is the latest target of the Trump administration's effort to dismantle the federal bureaucracy. That's after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. slashed 10,000 jobs at the Department of Health and Human Services early last week.

Entire offices were eliminated during the layoffs. Some of those positions, Kennedy says, will need to be reinstated. Experts warn that these sweeping job cuts at the HHS will affect drug approvals, disease tracking, and vital biomedical research.

We continue our series "If You Can Keep It" with a look at what these actions mean for our public health - and the health of U.S. democracy.

We discuss the latest on the dismantling of the HHS and how staff cuts at the department might change the way the U.S. delivers health services.

Want to support 1A? Give to your local public radio station and subscribe to this podcast. Have questions? Connect with us. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy