Nearly 1,300 probationary employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are being fired as part of the Trump administration’s purge of federal workers.
According to the Associated Press, the Atlanta-based CDC was notified of the decision on Friday morning, Feb. 14. The verbal notice came from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in a meeting with CDC leaders, according to a federal official who was at the meeting.
The affected employees will allegedly receive four weeks of paid administrative leave, but it was unclear when individual workers would receive formal notice.
The cut of probationary workers amounts to one-tenth of the CDC’s workforce. The agency had about 13,000 employees, including more than 2,000 staff working in other countries, according to AP.
Historically CDC has been seen as a global leader on disease control and a reliable source of health information, boasting some of the top experts in the world, AP said.
