The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has just lost 3,600 employees. 

This is because, according to Fox News, these employees were terminated by the administration of President Donald Trump.

This all comes just after Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., was confirmed and sworn in as the next HHS secretary. It is not clear what role, if any, Kennedy played in the decision.

But, there is no doubt this is one of the many big changes that is coming for HHS under Trump and Kennedy's leadership.

The details

According to Fox, the firings were actually done by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is being led by Elon Musk.

Per the outlet:

The Department of Government Efficiency terminated employment for 3,600 probationary Health and Human Services employees on Friday — but went through a careful process to exclude those who were serving in specialized or critical roles.  More than half of the agency’s probationary employees were retained. The cuts are estimated to save about $600 million in taxpayer dollars annually.

Fox goes on to provide a detailed list of the probationary HHS employees that the Trump administration decided to hold on to. This would include employees "working on refugee and resettlement within the Administration of Children and Families," employees working on emergency preparedness and response within Administration for Strategy Preparedness and Response (ASPR), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other divisions of HHS," and others.

DOGE made the decision according to the importance of the job.

It, according to Fox, prioritized "frontline healthcare providers, scientists conducting innovative research, personnel responding to emergencies."

Background

This move is likely separate from the terminations that Kennedy himself is expected to make.

Just after being sworn in, he said:

I have a list in my head ... we have a generic list of the kind of people that — if you’ve been involved in good science, you have got nothing to worry about. If you care about public health, you’ve got nothing to worry about. If you’re in there working for the pharmaceutical industry, then I’d say you should move out and work for the pharmaceutical industry.

The Democrats have attempted to garner public outrage against all of these moves.

The Trump administration has responded by continually reminding them that these are all actions that Trump campaigned on and actions that presumably more than half to he American people voted for.

It is a big shakeup, to say the least, and the interesting part is that it does not really seem to be the American public that is resisting it.