CDC disease detectives exempted from Trump hiring freeze, averting cut to program

The Department of Health and Human Services has granted an exemption to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to hire a new class of its disease detectives, multiple CDC officials said, averting a feared halving of the highly selective fellowship. 

Each year, the CDC usually hires a new class of its Epidemic Intelligence Service officers to replace those graduating from the agency’s two-year program. 

Nicknamed the CDC’s “disease detectives,” officers are often dispatched around the country to support the agency’s response to investigating outbreaks and other health emergencies, or assigned to work with CDC teams or health departments.

“HHS granted the CDC an exemption to onboard and train newly selected EIS officers. EIS officers continue to investigate outbreaks, analyze public health data, respond to emergencies, and support health departments worldwide,” an HHS spokesperson said in a statement.

The fate of the program had worried CDC officials, amid a sweeping federal hiring freeze that has halted most efforts to add new staff to the agency. Most officers need to move to a new location to serve in the program, ahead of a June 30 start date.

Even as incoming officers went through the process to match with their assignments at the CDC’s annual EIS conference last month, officials were warned that the department had yet to approve the hiring of the new class.

Many decisions at the CDC are now bottlenecked for HHS approvals, multiple officials said. Some blame the lack of a director to empower leaders within the agency to sign off on decisions. The previous acting CDC head — Susan Monarez — had to step aside to go through the Senate nomination process to become the agency’s permanent director.

Two officials said that there had also been a mixup within the CDC, getting the request to HHS for the hiring of the incoming EIS officers, resulting in a further delay. 

Officials had previously been warned that the “disease detectives” program would be halved as part of the Trump administration’s terminations of probationary workers earlier this year, though the program was ultimately spared from the cuts. 

Fellowship programs like EIS are often seen as a way for aspiring public health workers to get a start at the agency. Several senior CDC officials started at the agency through the program. Many of the terminated probationary workers at the CDC earlier this year had also been recently hired for full-time positions, fresh out of these fellowship programs.

A handful of exemptions have been carved out for other hirings at the CDC, officials said, including for the agency’s Laboratory Leadership Service program. That program matches scientists with training in public health laboratories at the CDC and around the country.

Other agencies have also been able to hire on a handful of staff, despite the federal hiring freeze that has ground most recruiting to a halt. 

Most recent hires have been limited to political appointees and scientists already offered jobs and being onboarded, multiple officials said, when the freeze was first imposed.

Multiple National Institutes of Health officials said they had been approved to continue onboarding new hires to its clinical fellows program, which allows junior doctors to participate in NIH research. One person said that more than 80 were in the pipeline to start on July 1.