The Trump administration announces the layoff of 10,000 Health Department workers.

WashingtonThe machinery to dismantle the United States public administration continues to work relentlessly. After the closure of the international cooperation agency USAID and the cuts of almost half the Education staff, among others, it is now the turn of the Department of Health. In the midst of the rampant avian flu crisis in the United States and the measles outbreaks—the latest case detected in Washington DC this Tuesday—andHealth Secretary Robert F. Kennedy has announced that it will lay off around 10,000 department employees.

In total, the agency will go from having 82,000 workers to 62,000, since we have to add all those who accepted the incentivized severance plan that President Donald Trump announced in February. In total, according to Kennedy, it is expected to save around $1.8 billion.

"During the Biden administration, the budget for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) increased by 38%, while personnel grew by 17%. Even so, all that money has not managed to improve the health of Americans. Life expectancy has decreased. ronic," Kennedy reasoned in the video published on X through which he made the announcement.

The new Secretary of Health, known for his anti-vaccine stance, has defended the cuts as part of a plan to make the department's operations more "efficient." He has also stated that he will reduce the 28 health divisions to 15 and that he will create a new Administration for a Healthy America, the slogan with which Kennedy joined Trump's campaign last summer and which he wants to replicate the "Make America great again".

The nephew of the former Democratic president has promised that this new administration will focus on "safe and healthy food, clean water and the elimination of environmental toxins." In the battle to achieve "clean water," Kennedy has stated that he wants to eliminate fluoride, which has been made. lead pipes that still affect many poor neighborhoods and poses a health risk to nearly 22 million people, according to a study by the Center for American Progress. and bird flu

Kennedy himself, who promises to promote safe food, has told chicken farms to let bird flu spread. Instead of culling birds when the infection is discovered, farmers "maybe consider letting it spread through all the birds so we can identify and preserve the birds that are immune," Kennedy said in an interview on Fox News. Although Kennedy has no jurisdiction over farms, as they are under the Department of Agriculture, the current secretary of the department, Brooke Rollins, has also expressed support for this proposal.

The first person to die from the virus in the United States was reported in Louisiana on January 6, and in recent days, eggs have begun to become scarce in some supermarkets due to the virus. Furthermore, in recent months, bird flu has also been detected in felines and has even been detected in farm cows. What worries experts most is that if the virus is allowed to spread, it could continue to mutate until it finds a way to cross over to humans.