STAT+: Deep cuts made to CDC’s flagship MMWR publication, a cornerstone of public health

WASHINGTON — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staff behind the agency’s flagship publication have suffered deep cuts as part of the firings the Health and Human Services Department has blamed on the government shutdown, according to five people familiar with the situation.

Almost the entire staff of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, known as the “voice of the CDC,” has been laid off, former publication editor-in-chief Charlotte Kent told STAT Saturday in her first public interview since she left the agency in February. Four other people with familiarity with the cuts also confirmed that MMWR staff had been axed. 

The firings are part of broader mass terminations on Friday by the Trump administration, which said it would lay off federal workers from “Democrat” programs, in the president’s words, as the shutdown, which Trump has blamed on party members, drags on. 

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