After firings, funding cuts, and a shooting, can a demoralized CDC workforce recover?

Demonstrators protest staffing cuts outside the Atlanta headquarters of the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on April 1, 2025. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. laid off thousands of HHS employees across multiple agencies, as part of an overhaul announced in March, 2025.

It's been a year since mass firings began at the CDC, the federal public health agency. Then came a shooting, and the government shutdown. Atlanta is still feeling the economic and emotional effects.

(Image credit: Elijah Nouvelage)