Washington (AP) – When the Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announcement Balayage use jobs In his department last month, he said that Safety inspectors who oversee American foods and medicines would not be affected.
These employees remain at Food and Drug AdministrationBut dozens of others who supported their work have disappeared. Missing employees include people who have booked complex international trips distant Indian pharmaceutical plantslaboratory scientists who have tested Food samples for contaminationand communication specialists who Alerted the audience to urgent security reminders.
Potential disturbances to The already tense inspection force of the FDA Are so large that agency managers have recently accelerated plans to hire external entrepreneurs to replace certain dismissed workers, starting with those who organized trips abroad, according to staff members with direct knowledge of the situation that spoke under the cover of anonymity. Under FDA rules, staff members are prohibited from publicly discussing sensitive agency issues without authorization.
The FDA has been struggling for years to increase inspections after a wave of long -standing staff has resigned or withdrawn during COVID 19. Efforts to recruit new inspectors have been hampered by labor requirements: months of travel, modest salary and exhausting work under conditions abroad abroad.
“If you put all this together, even if you did not reduce the number of people who inspections, you reduce their support,” said Howard Sklamberg, a lawyer who was previously responsible for the inspection and the application of the FDA. “The natural result will be less inspections.”
FDA commissioner Marty Makary told Podcaster Megyn Kelly in an episode published Thursday that the cups were in communications, legislative affairs and technological support stations.
“There has been no reduction in scientific examiners or inspectors or police for the FDA and my goal is to ensure that all these people have the resources they need to do their job well,” said Makary.
The agency quotes efficiency, but the union calls into question
The latest cuts include 170 staff members of the FDA inspections and surveys, including all staff members who have managed travel reserve, visas and safety of inspectors working in Asia, South America and other regions.
The letters of termination indicated that these jobs were “useless or practically identical” to other members of the agency. But this language is apparently contradicted by plans to outsource work to private companies.
The union representing FDA staff said that the decision “is not only reckless, it is ineffective, costly and a significant risk for human life.”
An HHS spokesman said the discounts had only touched “administrative positions” and “would make the agency more efficient and reactive”. They did not answer questions to find out if entrepreneurs would be cheaper or more effective.
Sklamberg said that changes will probably lead to more departures, especially among experienced inspectors, “due to the environment created and the difficulty of working there.”
The government’s office of responsibility recently urged the FDA To develop new strategies to retain inspectors, noting that attrition has been hiring for years. Consequently, the FDA is still leading 36% fewer inspections today than before the pandemic.
There is no official count of FDA jobs lost And many supervisors still do not last how many of their employees have decided to take an early retirement, buyouts and other offers designed to reduce the labor market.
“This could be devastating for the FDA in a way that they cannot even control,” said Susan Mayne of the University of Yale, who previously directed the FDA food center.
The job cuts include roles that support RFK JR.
In the weeks preceding the latest layoffs, the senior FDA leaders prepared detailed plans to reduce staff without harming the basic functions of the agency, according to two members of the FDA senior executives having direct knowledge of the work. But these proposals have never been requested by staff members working, nor presented Doge d’Elon Musk who made the decisions.
Many layoffs have targeted positions and teams with the words “political” and “regulations”, in their titles. Other cuts seemed to target offices in certain parts of the country deemed more expensive.
According to FDA staff, at least 10 food scientists from the San Francisco test laboratory of the FDA were cut.
Quickly testing food samples is essential to the work of inspection and application of the FDA, allowing the agency to quickly close the installations producing contaminated products and to issue warning letters. The precision of this work is also essential when the lawyers of the FDA must defend their actions before the courts.
Even the roles that apparently support the declared objectives of Kennedy – such as the stricter regulation of food additives and chemicals – have been eliminated.
About 15 scientists working in the Science and Technology Division of FDA Food Transformation in Chicago have lost their jobs. Their research included the search for means of identifying and eliminating dangerous chemicals and the reduction of microplastics and other particles which can beacular in packaged foods.
FDA food experts are gathered in various places in the United States
“As they close these different sites, you simply lose entire skills and areas of expertise,” said Mayne.
Public communications affected by shots
Those who stay at the agency are now trying to collect some of the critical tasks carried out by their licensed colleagues. This includes the notification of consumers, industry and doctors about emerging safety problems, including food reminders, import alerts, the side effects of the drug and supply shortages.
For many years, this work was carried out mainly by more than a dozen people in the agency’s media affairs office, which was eliminated earlier this month.
This has left communication work to various staff members dispersed in agency centers who deal with hundreds of other problems involving food, drugs, vaccines, tobacco and other products.
Adding to the difficulty, almost all public declarations must now go through the HHS press office. He has only one handful of staff members, most of whom have no experience in FDA problems.
“There are certain things that worked that no longer work,” said a FDA staff member, who spoke under the cover of anonymity.
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