A CDC scientist who lost their position during a federal shutdown told CBS News that the agency’s handling of staffing left many employees feeling expendable, comparing the experience to “an episode of ‘Squid Games’.” The comment underscores growing concern among public health professionals that political and budgetary disruptions can have immediate consequences for outbreak detection and response.

According to the source who spoke to CBS News, layoffs that were initially enacted were later rescinded for several core units, including the Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Center, the Global Health Center, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report team, the Epidemic Intelligence Service and scientists assigned to responses for outbreaks such as measles in the United States and Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The rescissions have not, the source said, erased the operational and morale damage inflicted by the interruption.

The timing is consequential. Health officials in South Carolina reported five new measles cases on Tuesday, bringing the state’s total to 16 since July and prompting quarantine orders for 139 students. Those figures illustrate the narrow window in which rapid case investigation, contact tracing and communication are essential. Public health teams typically lean on CDC subject matter experts and timely epidemiological reporting — roles centered in the units cited by the scientist — to mount coordinated responses.

The Epidemic Intelligence Service, often described as the agency’s “disease detectives,” and the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the CDC’s primary source for timely public health surveillance and guidance, are both considered linchpins in outbreak response. Interruptions to their work, even short ones, can slow the flow of critical data, delay guidance to state and local health departments and complicate international coordination during epidemics such as Ebola in eastern Africa.

“It’s not just about people losing jobs for a week,” the scientist told CBS. “It’s about the handoffs, the lost institutional memory and the slow-down in contact tracing and lab confirmations that you don’t see until cases climb.” The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity citing fear of reprisal, emphasized that rescinding the layoffs did not instantly restore disrupted projects or the trust of partners who depend on predictable federal support.

The episode has renewed calls from public health advocates for more robust safeguards to ensure continuity of essential services during political standoffs. Advocates argue that ad hoc staffing decisions during shutdowns disproportionately affect scientific work that cannot be paused without public health consequences.

The CDC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the CBS interview or on how the agency will prevent similar operational disruptions in the future. Meanwhile, state and local health departments coping with measles clusters and other outbreaks face the immediate task of limiting spread with limited visibility into how federal disruptions might affect forthcoming assistance, guidance and data sharing. The experience has left some employees and partners questioning whether the nation’s infectious disease defenses are as resilient as they need to be.