New Delhi: Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) ordered cuts this month for Centers for Disease Control staff who track the safety, cost and outcomes of the nation’s fertility clinics, reported Axios. President Trump, who called himself as “fertilization president”, promised to expand access to IVF, but his administration has eliminated a team in charge of researching those treatments.
The Trump administration has eliminated a team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in charge of researching those fertility treatments. According to NPR, among thousands of federal health agency employees who lost their jobs was a small group responsible for collecting data and conducting research about the safety and effectiveness of in vitro fertilization at clinics around the country.
What did the team do?
A former CDC employee explained Axios that the six-person ‘Reproductive Technology Surveillance and Research Team’ operated under a congressional mandate dating to 1992. The team served as a central hub for information and conducted research focused on improving access and reducing costs. Additionally, the Women’s Health and Fertility Branch was entirely dismantled, and the majority of the CDC’s Division of Reproductive Health faced significant cuts.
“How does cutting this program support the administration’s position?” the CDC employee told Axios. “If [Trump] really wants to expand IVF access, that was exactly what we’re trying to do, and we can only help support this position. It’s really frustrating and strange.” The employees were notified earlier this month that their positions were being eliminated as part of a larger reorganization at the Department of Health and Human Services.
All 28 employees were laid off by the Trump administration on 1 April, alongside a total of roughly 10,000 colleagues in cuts imposed by the health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.
Industry experts have also raised alarm at the loss of the oversight tool. “Eliminating the surveillance apparatus at the CDC is like flying a plane with a blindfold on,” Pietro Bortoletto, director of reproductive surgery at Boston IVF, told Bloomberg.
Key STI lab axed amid rise in syphilis cases
The Trump administration’s cuts to a sexually transmitted infection lab at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) comes as some states, such as Wisconsin, announce enormous increases in syphilis, according to Guardian.Syphilis mitigation is just the latest example of work in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) that will be affected by the lab’s closure, as the Trump administration discards expert leadership and programs that surveil, test and research STIs amid chaotic government cuts.
Authorities in Wisconsin announced that syphilis cases had risen 1,450% in the state since 2019, the public health director said in a statement on Thursday. The trend mirrors a nationwide increase that officials at the CDC described only two years ago as a “heartbreaking” epidemic.
Experts have highlighted the drastic cuts to the CDC’s highly specialized STD Laboratory Reference and Research Branch as particularly alarming.
This lab played a crucial role in combating syphilis and multidrug-resistant gonorrhea—often referred to as “super gonorrhea.” According to the Association of Public Health Laboratories, it held the world’s leading expertise in viral hepatitis within a public health setting. It was also the only facility in the U.S. capable of conducting PCR testing for syphilis, which is still largely diagnosed using outdated mid-20th-century serology methods. No other federal, state, academic, or private institution replicated the lab’s work.
“The recent restructuring at the CDC is part of ongoing efforts to improve the efficiency of federal health programs. The important work related to Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) will continue, with a focus on ensuring that resources are allocated effectively to support public health priorities,” an HHS official told Axios.
