Scientists and medical researchers being let go by President Donald Trump’s administration walked out of the gates of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, Friday afternoon appearing shaken, some in tears, some walking arm-in-arm. News4’s Jackie Bensen reports.
Scientists and medical researchers being let go by President Donald Trump’s administration walked out of the gates of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, Friday afternoon appearing shaken, some in tears, some walking arm-in-arm.
The News4 I-Team learned Thursday that at least 216,000 probationary employees could be impacted, making up about 9.4% of the total federal workforce. Federal workers can be on probation anywhere from one to two years before all their civil service protections kick in. It’s a broad category that includes recent hires and long-time staffers who were recently moved to a new position.
“The work that we’re doing at NIH keeps the United States at the top of biomedical research,” said Dr. Matt Brown of Fellows United, a union that represents early career researchers and others at NIH.
Fellows, as they are called, bring fresh academic knowledge to medical research.
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“We’re working on cures for cancer, we’re working on cures for diabetes, we’re working on cures for Alzheimer's, ALS, all of these things,” Brown said. “And so, those people that you see leaving, thinking it might be their last day on the job at NIH, they’re taking away with them their years of experience on these things.”
It’s not clear how many probationary employees were fired at NIH Friday afternoon, but the number is believed to be well more than 1,000 people.
“Quite frankly, a bad day at work for us is a bad day for the American public, right,” Brown said.
“We have some of the smartest people, who come from all over the world in order to serve the public interest, in order to in order to some of the most cutting edge and critical research, which continues to save lives and continues to positively impact the world,” Montgomery County Councilmember Andrew Friedson, who represents Bethesda, where NIH is located, told News4 last week. “And these are the folks that this administration is attacking.”
Some NIH clinical staff reportedly are exempt from the layoffs.
NBC News learned hundreds at the Environmental Protection Agency received a termination email at 5 p.m. Friday.
More than four hundred people at the Department of Homeland Security also received notices Friday that they are fired.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it’s losing almost 1,300 workers. They are supposed to receive four weeks of paid administrative leave.
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