Layoffs have begun at the Department of Health and Human Services, including at the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Knox County Health Department has laid off seven employees ‒ six full-time and one part-time ‒ after the federal government suddenly cut grants that paid their salaries, Knox News has learned. The employees' salaries were paid for by a federal Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Prevention and Control of Emerging Infectious Diseases grant designed to fight infectious disease outbreaks.

Hundreds of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) employees waited on line to find out if they still had a job. The Trump administration is trying to cut 10,000 full-time jobs from the department.