Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe U.S. Department of Agriculture said Tuesday that it is moving to correct the accidental firing of several people working on the federal government’s response to an outbreak of avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu.
While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there is a low risk of the public contracting the disease, the USDA firings come as bird flu is wreaking havoc on the agriculture sector and as egg prices soar to a record high. The job cuts are part of a wider Trump administration overhaul of the federal government, including attempts to gut national health agencies, halt scientific reports and grants and put a hold on multimillion-dollar programs to combat malaria, Ebola and tuberculosis abroad.
“Although several positions supporting HPAI [bird flu] were notified of their terminations over the weekend, we are working to swiftly rectify the situation and rescind those letters,” a statement from the USDA said.
In a Friday statement ahead of the cuts, the USDA touted its pursuit of “an aggressive plan to optimize its workforce,” and Secretary Brooke Rollins said she welcomes “DOGE’s efforts at USDA,” referring to the Elon Musk-led U.S. DOGE Service.
The USDA’s move was met with criticism from several Democratic lawmakers, including Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota), who wrote on social media, “Understand USDA is now fast tracking to rehire front line employees working on bird flu outbreaks … Nice job Musk! You and your friends will still get your tax breaks, but higher egg prices for everyone else.”
In a matter of weeks, DOGE, which stands for the Department of Government Efficiency, has upended several government agencies and the lives of thousands of federal workers with sweeping cuts made by a team staffed by many with ties to the billionaire or his companies. Federal workers told The Washington Post that basic functions are slowing at several agencies and could collapse as crucial staff members are pushed out.
Last week, some firings in the Energy Department were initiated, then paused, after they sparked alarm about the effect on nuclear defense programs.
The government overhaul has raised concerns about public health and the future of the United States’ vast scientific research apparatus.
A CDC report showing some veterinarians who care for cattle were unknowingly infected with avian influenza last year published Thursday after being delayed for weeks following President Donald Trump’s Jan. 21 order that federal health agencies pause all external communications, The Washington Post reported.
In an essay in the New England Journal of Medicine, a group of doctors stressed that the omission of information about bird flu “raises concerns about the CDC’s ability to disseminate scientific data and analysis of public health information in a timely manner.”
Last month, health officials reported that a man from Louisiana had become the first person in the United States to die of avian flu, and at least 68 cases have been reported since 2024, though almost all have been mild.
Since 2022, the outbreak has killed more than 150 million birds in the United States. One egg producer told The Post this month, “We’re in the fight of our lives” against the disease.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.
It’s almost as though DOGE is working on behalf of external non-state actors determined to bring down the United States government. Nothing they’re don’t couldn’t be done with 60 days of study first, then submission to Congress. Rule of law!
Musk and Trump are almost certainly Russian assets.
DOGE, Musk and everyone involved with DOGE is a joke. So far there have been a whole lot of allegations of fraud with ZERO proof of the existence of fraud. Do I think there is fraud, heck yes, the government is fraut with fraud. Do I believe that DOGE is solving any of the fraud? Heck no, all they are doing is cutting staff and not solving the problem by creating additional problems.
Trusk and Mumps and their MAGAt and Muskrat teams are solving bird flu by firing the people working on it. Theny they’ll declare a victory, because there will be on one left to find out if bird flu is still a “thing.” And if a few bad eggs get through and cause people to become ill, well, Trusk and Mumps will just say the sick and dying are liberals, and the country will be better off without them.
Remember in 2017 Trump fired the pandemic response team “because it was a waste of tax money”. Tell me how that “saved” us anything in 2020?!?
For every worked fired where somebody said “oops” and realized they were doing something that mattered, I’ll bet there are a hundred more that got fired and just because we don’t understand what their job was, we won’t notice until there is some other kind of disaster.
Careless, stupid, and blind is no way to manage anything, especially for a couple of Wharton grads (both 45/47 and his hatchet man).