The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) called back some recently terminated employees on Wednesday and apologized for “any disruption” caused by recent layoffs at the federal health agency.
A message to some CDC employees was sent with the subject line, “Read this e-mail immediately.”
It added that “after further review and consideration,” a Feb. 15 termination notice has been rescinded and the employee was cleared to return to work on Wednesday.
“You should return to duty under your previous work schedule,” the message reads. “We apologize for any disruption that this may have caused.”
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) confirmed the reinstatements of the employees, although he suggested that more workers with the federal health agency need to get their jobs back. The CDC headquarters is located in Atlanta, Georgia.
“Today’s announcement is a welcome relief, but until all fired CDC employees are restored, our country’s public health and national security will continue to be at risk,” Warnock said in a statement on Wednesday.
Warnock also said that he is pleased that his “defense of the CDC was heard by the leadership of the Trump Administration, which is why I’m calling on the Trump Administration to reinstate all CDC employees” who were terminated in recent weeks.
Based on the CDC email and Warnock’s statement, it’s not clear how many CDC employees returned to work on Wednesday.
The Epoch Times contacted the CDC for comment but received no response by Thursday morning.
The CDC is the latest federal agency that is trying to reinstate some employees who were laid off as part of the Trump administration’s cost-cutting efforts, spearheaded by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Similar reversals have been made among employees responsible for medical device oversight, food safety, bird flu response, nuclear weapons, and national parks in recent days.
The move follows the CDC’s confirmation this week that it sent emergency response officials to deal with an outbreak of measles in western Texas that state officials say has sickened 159 people, and led to the death of a child.
In a post on social media platform X, the CDC wrote that it is working with the Texas Department of Health as part of a “rapid response” effort to “tackle urgent public health issues like disease outbreaks.”
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also said the CDC’s response is having an impact in communities where measles cases have been confirmed in recent days. Officials there are getting “very good results” with various treatments, including cod liver oil, vitamin A, steroids, and an antibiotic called azithromycin, he told Fox News on Wednesday.
“What we’re trying to do is really to restore faith in government and to make sure that we are there to help them with their needs and not particularly to dictate what they ought to be doing,” Kennedy told the news outlet.
Since the Trump administration took over in January, other shakeups have occurred in the CDC. Early on, the agency took down a number of pages that were out of compliance with a Trump order that had rescinded gender ideology terminology before a judge ordered those pages to be restored in February.
Among other directives, the Trump administration also ordered the CDC to stop collaborating with the World Health Organization.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.