dzd777 F.D.A. Layoffs Could Raise Drug Costs and Erode Food Safety

　　

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced wide-ranging cutbacks at federal health agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, that would eliminate duplicative services and paper pushers.

But in interviews with more than a dozen current and former F.D.A. staff members, a different picture emerged of the far-reaching effects of the layoffs that would ultimately reduce the agency work force by 20 percent. Among them are experts who navigated a maze of laws to determine if an expensive drug can be sold as a low-cost generic; lab scientists who tested food and drugs for contaminants or deadly bacteria; veterinary division specialists investigating bird flu transmission; and researchers who monitored televised ads for false claims about prescription drugs.

In many areas of the F.D.A., no employees remain to process payroll, to file retirement or layoff paperwork and to help overseas inspectors who are at risk of maxing out agency credit cards. Even the agency’s library, where researchers and experts relied on medical journal subscriptions that have now been canceled, has been shut down.

The F.D.A.’s new commissioner, Dr. Marty Makary, showed up for a long-awaited appearance at the agency’s Maryland headquarters on Wednesday. He delivered a speech outlining broad problems in the health care system,betef slots including a rise in chronic diseases. Employees were not given a formal opportunity to ask questions.

About 3,500 F.D.A. employees are expected to lose their jobs under the reductions. A spokesman for Health and Human Services did not respond to questions.

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When the Trump administration executed its first round of cuts to the F.D.A. in February, it gutted teams of scientists who did the delicate work of ensuring the safety of surgical robots and devices that infuse insulin in children with diabetes. Some of the layoffs and cutbacks, described by former F.D.A. officials as arbitrary, were rapidly reversed.

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But many of their smiles shrank when they were asked about the embattled Republican nominee for governor, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who has been under fire since CNN reported this week on the lewd comments he made on a pornography website several years ago. According to CNN, Mr. Robinson wrote on the site that he was a “black NAZI,” that he enjoyed watching transgender pornography and that slavery was not bad. He also recounted on the site how he went “peeping” on women in public gym showers as a teenager.

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