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CDC cuts expected to decimate Epidemic Intelligence Service

Members of the CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service were warned Friday that many of them were about to be fired

Many of the members of the Epidemic Intelligence Service, a legendary training program run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, were warned on Friday morning that they were about to be fired, two people with knowledge of the meeting told STAT. They were even portrayed on the big screen: In the 2011 Steven Soderbergh movie Contagion, about the start of a pandemic, Kate Winslet’s character was an EIS officer sent to investigate the unnerving new disease that an American businesswoman had unwittingly transported to Minneapolis. “For more than 70 years, EIS officers have served on America’s front line as its disease detectives, ready at a moment’s notice to protect Americans by responding to emerging outbreaks here in the U.S. and around the globe,” said former CDC director Tom Frieden, who is president and CEO of the non-profit Resolve to Save Lives.

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