The CDC Has a Cyclospora Lab. DOGE Downsized It Last Year
The CDC's specialized lab for tracking the parasite cyclospora was significantly downsized following government-wide layoffs and restructuring under the Trump administration. Experts warn that these cuts will hinder the agency's ability to respond to public health outbreaks.
Why it matters
It highlights the potential public health consequences of aggressive federal agency downsizing and administrative policy shifts.
Amid mass government layoffs last year implemented by President Donald Trump and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, the CDC lab that responds to outbreaks of the parasite cyclospora was downsized from 11 people to just three, according to Joel Barratt, a molecular parasitologist and assistant professor at Emory University School of Medicine who previously led that team.
“Based on simple math, these outbreak responses—which require rapid, timely responses—are going to be greatly diminished,” he tells WIRED. “Cyclospora is just one piece. It's making the news right now, but there are other, more dangerous pathogens than cyclospora.”
Barratt says he left the CDC voluntarily in September after working at the agency for eight years because he felt he could no longer “do right by public health” amid sweeping policy overhauls and staff purges under Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
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