[embedded content]. This article is from a partnership that includes WABE, NPR, and KFF Health News. It can be republished for free.. On the coffee table at her home in Atlanta, Sarah Boim has a pile of documents from her old job at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They are printouts of her employment records.. Boim lost her job in the first big wave of CDC firings — more than 1,000 people were suddenly let go last February.. “This is the termination letter. I also printed off my performance review from 2024,” she said. “I knew I wouldn’t have access to it, and everything was so chaotic that I needed proof of what was happening.”. Boim worked in the National Center for Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, handling communications about radon, substances known as forever chemicals, lead poisoning, and other health threats.. Rereading her termination letter, she still can’t believe what it says.. Former CDC employee Sarah Boim rereads her termination letter at home in Atlanta. Boim lost her job in the first big round of firings in mid-February 2025, just weeks into the second Trump administration.(Jess Mador/WABE). “The agency finds you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge, and skills do not fit the agency’s current needs, and your performance has not been adequate to justify further employment at the agency,” the emailed letter reads.. “And that floored me,” Boim said, “because my performance was rated outstanding, and I even got a raise. It was just deeply insulting. So I was more upset than I think I was prepared to be.”. The Trump administration later brought back some of the workers who were fired in the first round, but it has also cut more staff and funding.. Email Sign-Up. Subscribe to KFF Health News’ free Morning Briefing.. Your Email Address Sign Up. The CDC has been without a permanent director for more than six months. Recently the Trump administration made Jay Bhattacharya the CDC’s interim director, while he also runs the National Institutes of Health.. The leadership uncertainty comes amid a year of disruption and dismissals at the Atlanta-based institution, from which more than 3,000 public health workers are now gone. That includes staffers the Trump administration terminated and workers who accepted early retirement.. Ripple effects of the turmoil are still hitting the Atlanta region.. By the end of 2025, the CDC had lost roughly a quarter of its workforce.. Dozens of protesters rally across the street from CDC headquarters in Atlanta, marking a year since mass firings began at the agency under the Trump administration. Affecting thousands of workers at multiple federal agencies, the cuts began around Feb. 14, 2025, leading some CDC staffers to dub it the “Valentine’s Day massacre.”(Jess Mador/WABE). Boim now works as a contractor in the health field, while also working a non-health-related freelance job. But she mo
