What did Donald Trump do today?
He tried and failed to quietly fire his CDC Director for not going along with his administration's attack on the COVID-19 vaccine.
For a man whose game show catchphrase was "you're fired," Trump is quite squeamish about actually firing people, and has gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid having to do it himself. He prefers to act through intermediaries or via social media—even when the person in question works in the same building as him. In his second term, at least where his inner circle is concerned, he's all but abandoned the concept, preferring instead to "promote" staff who offend or underperform in some way to diplomatic jobs.
With regular federal employees—the ones with no personal connection to Trump—it's a different story. Trump has fired hundreds of thousands of workers, including many he had no legal right to fire, forcing them to take legal action just to be temporarily reinstated. The full scope of Trump's decimation of the federal workforce is becoming clear: just shy of 200,000 government employees have lost their jobs, with another 100,000 expected this year.
The damage done by those firings is far greater than the immediate loss of the workers' livelihoods. The job market itself has virtually shut down over the last few months, and unemployed former government workers are now competing with new entrants to what's left of the private sector market. Meanwhile, federal agencies are unable to staff critical positions because skilled workers are resigning too, either out of fear for the uncertainty of working under Trump or disgust at his treatment of workers.
All of these tendencies were on display today, as Trump unofficially and indirectly fired the head of the CDC, Dr. Susan Monarez—the person he'd appointed to the role just weeks ago. But while the firing was announced on the CDC's own social media site, as of late this evening, it had not actually been done, apparently in the hope that Monarez would resign of her own accord.
Through her attorneys, Monarez posted this response to Trump's attempts to get her to fall on her sword:
Throughout the day, both CDC and White House spokespeople insisted that Monarez had been fired, but Trump himself must order it done, and whether through inability or unwillingness, he had not yet made any such order as of midnight Thursday.
Meanwhile, three other senior CDC officials resigned in protest tonight. Like Monarez, they cited the dangerous and anti-scientific orders from HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who today announced restrictions on who would be eligible to receive this winter's updated COVID-19 vaccine. Kennedy, a former talk show host and lawyer with no experience in health care, is a vaccine conspiracy theorist. The officials who resigned cited Kennedy's censorship of medical research to fit his personal political agenda, his purging of scientists who wouldn't promise to issue the findings he wanted, and the Trump administration's belief in the discredited science of eugenics.
Under today's orders, which appear to have set off the firings and resignations, Americans will no longer be able to simply choose to receive a vaccine at a convenient location like a pharmacy. Instead, they s will have to schedule a visit with their doctor first. This will add expense and inconvenience even for those whose access to health care won't be affected by Medicaid cuts in Trump's budget bill.
Studies vary, but the COVID-19 vaccine is generally credited with saving 20,000,000 lives worldwide in its first year of availability alone.
Full text of the resignation letters
Why does this matter?
- Americans' health and safety literally depends on letting competent public health officials do their jobs.