Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. just announced plans to dissolve the Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy, with the entire staff expected to be fired.

The office is in charge of a big federal vaccine promotion and HIV prevention program.

Reportedly, the Office of Minority Health will also be shut down.

These cuts are part of RFK Jr.’s larger plan to cut a total of over 20,000 positions at the HHS.

Here are the details:

Full text of that post:

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RFK JR TO SHUT DOWN VACCINE & HIV PREVENTION OFFICE

RFK Jr. is moving to dissolve the Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy (OIDP), gutting a major federal program behind vaccine promotion and HIV prevention. The cuts are part of a broader plan to eliminate 20,000 HHS jobs. OIDP ran childhood vaccine campaigns like “Let’s Get Real” and oversaw Trump’s “Ending the HIV Epidemic” initiative.

It also managed the National Vaccine Program and advised agencies on vaccine safety and rollout. The Office of Minority Health is reportedly also on the chopping block. OIDP’s duties may be absorbed into a new agency — the Administration for a Healthy America (AHA) — under Trump’s restructuring of HHS. The AHA is expected to launch within 10 days.

More details from CBS News:

The entire staff of the federal government’s Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy is expected to be laid off, multiple federal health officials told CBS News Friday. The moves are part of a broader restructuring plan ordered by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that involves cutting 20,000 HHS positions.

Much of the government’s efforts to buoy lagging childhood vaccination rates nationwide have been run through OIDP, including a new campaign called “Let’s Get Real” that had launched in the final months of the Biden administration to provide resources and information to health care providers talking to hesitant parents.

“Spreading the truth saves lives, so use our resources to help parents understand how vaccines work, why they’re safe, and how they help protect kids,” the department had said of the campaign after it was launched.

The Office of Minority Health has also been informed that it should expect to be dissolved, sources said.

However, multiple officials said that written notices of layoffs had not yet been received by HHS employees.

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Senior federal health officials initially said Friday they were expecting that official notices of the cuts would be issued in the afternoon, but acknowledged that the timing of the letters could slide into the weekend, similar to the cuts to HHS probationary workers sought by the Trump administration earlier this year.

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.
 

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