The Trump administration has fired roughly 20 employees who worked at the National Institutes of Health occupational health and safety division, also known as the division that stops pathogen “lab leaks” from occurring.
The employees were fired as part of cuts to probationary workers that took place across the federal government in February, and were directed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, two sources confirmed to NOTUS. The NIH’s Division of Occupational Health and Safety employs about 170 people in total, according to the Department of Health and Human Services employee directory.
The division’s duties range from maintaining scientific equipment to providing appropriate lab coats or other personal protective apparel to scientists. The work of DOHS is especially important in the NIH’s biosafety laboratories, where scientists study diseases that are able to infect humans — and where the DOHS is tasked with not only protecting the NIH employees who work with dangerous pathogens, but with keeping infectious diseases from escaping the confines of the lab and infecting the general population.