The Trump administration has launched a significant workforce reduction, targeting over 200,000 probationary federal employees across multiple agencies, including a staggering purge at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),
The day of reckoning at NIH in Bethesda, Maryland, saw scientists and medical researchers walking out in disbelief, some in tears, some walking arm-in-arm, as they were forced to clear out their offices, according to NBC Washington.
It is unclear how many employees were terminated in the Friday purge, but according to Katie Sandlin, an Education Outreach Specialist at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), the number was 2,000.
“Today, along with 2,000 other NIH employees, I had to clear out my office,” said Katie Sandlin, an Education Outreach Specialist at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI).