CDC disease detectives exempted from Trump hiring freeze, averting cut to program

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CBS News

May 7, 2025 / 2:18 PM EDT


The Department of Health and Human Services has granted an exemption to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to hire a new class of its disease detectives, multiple CDC officials said, averting a feared halving of the highly selective fellowship. Each year, the CDC usually hires a new class of its Epidemic Intelligence Service officers to replace those graduating from the agency's two-year program.

Nicknamed the CDC's "disease detectives," officers are often dispatched around the country to support the agency's response to investigating outbreaks and other health emergencies, or assigned to work with CDC teams or health departments. "HHS granted the CDC an exemption to onboard and train newly selected EIS officers. EIS officers continue to investigate outbreaks, analyze public health data, respond to emergencies, and support health departments worldwide," an HHS spokesperson said in a statement.

The fate of the program had worried CDC officials, amid a sweeping federal hiring freeze that has halted most efforts to add new staff to the agency. Most officers need to move to a new location to serve in the program, ahead of a June 30 start date. Even as incoming officers went through the process to match with their assignments at the CDC's annual EIS conference last month, officials were warned that the department had yet to approve the hiring of the new class.

Many decisions at the CDC are now bottlenecked for HHS approvals, multiple officials said. Some blame the lack of a director to empower leaders within the agency to sign off on decisions. The previous acting CDC head — Susan Monarez — had to step aside to go through the Senate nomination process to become the agency's permanent director. Two officials said that there had also been a mixup within the CDC, getting the request to HHS for the hiring of the incoming EIS officers, resulting in a further delay.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cdc-disease-detectives-trump-hiring-freeze-exemption/

[Midnight Writer]

1. "averting cut to program" today. Tomorrow? Depends on the mood of the children in charge.

[hlthe2b]

2. Symbolically nice, but they will have little ability to do their jobs it would seem...

(which includes making recommendations, initiating screening, vaccination or other interventions, and collecting/analyzing data that, when truthfully reported, WILL make "waves" politically).

They will also be put in an awkward position advising State and Local Health Authorities. If such appropriate advice counters RFK Jr. or other administration a'holes, it will cause an enormous issue (and it is likewise at least possible they could be reported by Trump-sympathetic staff on State and Local Health Department payrolls).

How stressful it is to try to do one's job in a nasty, retributive, authoritarian regime.

Still, I'm glad to see the EIS program is saved-- at least for now.