‘Targets on Our Backs’: CDC Staffers Describe ‘Hostile’ Workplace to Politico

Kathryn Wilkens Nov 21st, 2025, 1:55 pm

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Per Congress’s government shutdown-ending deal , hundreds of previously fired CDC employees returned to work this week, with one telling Politico that, along with the “never-ending feeling that we have metaphorical targets on our backs, a lot of employees feel like they have literal targets on their backs,” in a report published Friday.

The eight current or recently fired staffers — most granted anonymity out of fear of retaliation — told Politico’s Sophie Gardner that after months of mass firings, retractions, re-firings, and high-level resignations , morale has collapsed under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

See Full Page