STAT reports:

The Department of Health and Human Services made major cuts to teams across its agencies that handle communications, media relations, and Freedom of Information Act requests as part of mass layoffs Tuesday, a move that workers say will impair the department’s ability to relay critical health information to the public and run counter to secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vow to promote “radical transparency.”

At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the majority of the media relations team was cut, as were workers who process FOIA requests, run the CDC’s website, and manage social media accounts, said Kevin Griffis, who stepped down as director of the agency’s communications several days ago.

“RFK Jr. promised radical transparency; he only got half of that right. This is radical,” Griffis said.

At the Food and Drug Administration, the entire media team was cut, along with communications teams at centers within the FDA that regulate products like drugs, biologics, and medical devices, Erica Jefferson, a former communications official at the FDA, wrote in a LinkedIn post. Those teams provide updates on product approvals and issue alerts on drug safety and device recalls to doctors and patients.

Most of the workers who process FOIA requests at the FDA were also cut, including those who handled requests at the centers that oversee medicines and devices, said a person familiar with the layoffs. “If there’s no FOIA staff, no records can be released, so that’s obviously not good for agency transparency.” [Continue reading…]