Scored 2026-10-14 under methodology v0.2.0. Composite 67 — Severely impaired, coverage 73 percent (six of eight dimensions; mission and public-facing service remain unscored for lack of a baseline, Rule 6-d), confidence medium. This supersedes the 2026-10-09 stub pass (62 percent coverage, composite withheld); the prior calibration readings are kept in docs/ada-pilot/calibration-centers-for-disease-control-and-prevention.md and in History below. New primary-record evidence this pass: OPM Federal Workforce Data (realized headcount and separations, D1), CDC’s own leadership page (Tier-1 occupancy, D2), and a CourtListener docket confirming CDC’s party status and the full caption in the N.D. Ill. grants case (D8).

Institution: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an operating division of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that works to protect public health by preventing and controlling disease, including outbreaks (CRS R47207). Per methodology §2 it is assessed on its own evidence; HHS has no profile here and nothing is averaged. Status: Scored. Six of eight dimensions read (workforce, leadership, independence, data integrity, funding, legal compliance); mission and public-facing service remain unscored for lack of a baseline. Evidence cutoff: 2026-10-14 (the newest dated items are the CDC leadership page and the CourtListener docket lookup, both 2026-10-14; newest court filing in the AAP v. Kennedy appeal 2026-09-22; newest ruling on the merits 2026-03-16). Damage index: 67 — Severely impaired (coverage 73 percent). Confidence: medium. Recoverability (D9): 3 (H3, 4 to 10 years), binding constraint: workforce — see below.

Agency at a Glance

Statutory functions

Not enumerated in this pass (D3 unscored). The function list with FY2024 baseline measures is the first thing a scored pass needs.

Basis for Inclusion

Agency Damage Gate: admitted to scoring on indicators from more than one dimension. Measured capacity loss: net headcount down about 28 percent, March 2025 to May 2026 (credibly reported, below). Targeted removal: the Director was removed after under one month and three center or office heads and the deputy director resigned within days, August 2025 (PBS; MedPage Today). Judicial finding: a federal court stayed the January 2026 immunization-schedule memo and the reconstitution of the vaccine advisory committee (AAP v. Kennedy, 2026-03-16). Direct interference: CDC’s own release says the acting director acted on a presidential memorandum. Statutory function impaired: 444 CDC grants terminated, $5.78 billion unliquidated (HHS’s own list).

Baseline: stated per dimension below. Dimensions where no baseline could be set are unscored (Rule 2, Rule 6-d).

Stated rationale of the administration: for the Director’s removal, a White House spokesperson was reported to have said she was “not aligned with the President’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again” (reported by hhs.com’s news summary of the announcement and by the stub’s PBS item; the primary statement was not traced). CDC’s January 2026 release frames its memo as implementing a presidential memorandum (CDC). The federal defendants argued in court that the Director could change the schedule without ACIP under the Secretary’s general authority at 42 U.S.C. § 243(a) (as summarised in the court’s order). HHS’s reason for the March 2025 grant terminations was not retrieved in this run.

Timeline of Actions

Personnel Ledger

Rules: methodology §8. Named senior holders of Tier-1 positions only; everyone else is an aggregate. The machine ledger (JSON) does not exist yet.

A. Separations and removals (named)

Current occupancy of the vacated seats (2026-10-14, Documented, CDC leadership page): Houry’s combined Deputy Director/Chief Medical Officer role has been split and permanently filled — Jennifer Shuford now holds Deputy Director and Chief Medical Officer (not acting), and a separate Principal Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer post was created, held by Sean Slovenski (not acting). The three center/office directorships remain Acting, 14 months after the resignations: NCIRD (Rebecca Greco Koné), NCEZID (Christopher R. Braden), and the Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance and Technology (Matt Ritchey). No permanent successor to any of the three has been named as of this capture.

B. Aggregate counts (unnamed)

C. Conduct findings

None identified. Not researched beyond the court record read here.

D. Ledger roll-up

Damage Assessment

Scored 2026-10-14 under the v0.2.0 anchors (methodology §6; Rule 6 applied as written throughout). Mission (D3) and public-facing service (D7) remain unscored for lack of a baseline (Rule 2, Rule 6-d) — an honest gap, not a zero.

Composite: 100 × (17×3 + 11×2 + 13×3 + 10×2 + 14×4 + 8×1) / 4 / 73 = 100 × 49 / 73 = 67 — Severely impaired (band 60–79). Confidence: medium (coverage ≥70 percent; every dimension scored 3 or 4 — D1, D4, D6 — has at least one Documented fact; evidence cutoff within 180 days). High confidence is not reached: it needs ≥90 percent coverage and two independent lineages per 3/4-scored dimension, and D1’s 3 rests on one primary lineage (OPM) even though that lineage is itself Documented.

Sensitivity check. Equal weights (12.5 each, six scored dimensions): 100 × (3+2+3+2+4+1)×12.5/4 / 75 = 64, Severely impaired — band stable. Capacity-heavy (D1, D3, D6 doubled; D3 unscored so effective weights 34/11/13/10/28/8): 100 × (34×3+11×2+13×3+10×2+28×4+8×1)/4 / 104 = 100×(102+22+39+20+112+8)/4/104 = 100×303/4/104 = 72.8 → 73, Severely impaired. Band is stable under both reweightings. D2’s conservative-vs-raw-share choice (2 vs. 3) also does not move the band: at D2=3 the composite is 71 (still Severely impaired) — see the D2 discussion below.

D1 — Workforce and expertise capacity

Reading: 3. Baseline: 12,788 civil servants at OPM’s December 2024 snapshot (202412), the last whole month before the administration began (2025-01-20); 12,763 at the January 2025 snapshot (202501) is reported alongside per OPM’s own baseline note. No trailing five-year separation rate was collected. Evidence:

• D1-E1 (Documented, primary record): OPM Federal Workforce Data (EHRI), agency code HE, subelement HE39 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), retrieved 2026-10-09 (docs/ada-pilot/data/opm-workforce.json). Headcount fell from 12,788 (Dec 2024) to 9,063 (Aug 2026), a net loss of 3,725 or 29.1 percent; from the Jan 2025 baseline, 12,763 to 9,063, a net loss of 3,700 or 29.0 percent; same-season (Dec 2024 to Dec 2025, both winter, avoiding CDC’s modest seasonal swing), 12,788 to 9,769, a net loss of 3,019 or 23.6 percent. All three readings fall inside the same anchor band. Gross separations (2025-01 to 2026-08) total 3,690 by mechanism (RIF 576, DRP 347, early-out retirement 164, other retirement 141, voluntary retirement 849, quit-not-DRP 819, termination/expired-appointment 704, transfer out 51, other 39); gross accessions total 255. OPM counts people, not FTE (R6-b), excludes the Commissioned Corps and other bodies per its own coverage page, and flags the most recent months (through 202608) as the least complete versions at retrieval, subject to revision.
• D1-E2 (Credibly reported, one lineage): a union-backed dashboard separately reports headcount falling from 12,705 (March 2025) to 9,166 (May 2026), a net loss of 3,539 or 27.9 percent; 271 more on paid leave, not counted as separated (D1-c). This is a different baseline month and a different basis than OPM’s EHRI count but lands in the same range, corroborating without adding an independent lineage for R5’s “High” threshold.
• D1-E3 (Documented, agency exhibit): the CDC FY2027 justification gives FTE 11,370 for FY2025 and an estimated 10,169 for FY2026, with 8,887 requested for FY2027. These are FTE, a different basis from OPM’s person-count headcount, and the FY2026/FY2027 values are estimates and a plan. Reported, never scored (R6-b).
• Anchor: net loss of 20 percent to under 35 percent gives 3. R6-c is now satisfied: OPM’s own EHRI data is the primary record and itself establishes the anchor (the prior stub pass capped this at 2 for lack of exactly this trace).

Stated rationale / improvements: not captured for CDC. Per the stub’s FNN citation, CDC planned a hiring push in March 2026 (not re-verified; OPM’s accession data above is the realized figure and shows no corresponding hiring surge through Aug 2026, so R6-a/R6-b give no additional credit).

D2 — Leadership decapitation and politicization

Reading: 2. Baseline: CDC’s own leadership page, captured 2026-10-14, is both the Tier-1 roster and the current-occupancy record; no historical (pre-2025) Tier-1 exit rate was collected, so the anchor is read on the share of current non-ordinary-exit-or-acting seats alone.

Tier-1 roster (22 positions; CDC has no separate statutory CFO, CIO, General Counsel or Inspector General — those sit at HHS):

12 of 22 (54.5 percent) are Acting. Within Office of Science sits the Office of Public Health Ethics and Regulations (OPHER), the closest CDC has to a dedicated ethics function; its Acting director is Rachel Hulkower (not part of the 22-position denominator above, which tracks center/office heads, not sub-units).

Evidence:

• D2-E1 (Documented, primary record): the CDC leadership page itself (captured 2026-10-14) establishes the current-occupancy share directly.
• D2-E2 (Documented/Credibly reported, carried from the ledger): the Director was removed 2025-08-27 after under a month; the Deputy Director/CMO, and the NCIRD, NCEZID and OPHDST directors resigned in protest the same week (ledger 001–005). The Director’s vacancy (343 days) is cured at the cutoff (R6-a) by Schwartz’s 2026-08-05 confirmation. NCIRD, NCEZID and OPHDST remain Acting 14 months later with no permanent successor named — a documented non-ordinary exit combined with a duration well past 180 days.
• The scoring tension: the raw current-occupancy share (54.5 percent Acting) would meet the anchor for 3 (“50 percent or more”). But only 3 of the 12 Acting seats (NCIRD, NCEZID, OPHDST) have a Documented non-ordinary-exit cause and a confirmed duration past 180 days; the other 9 (Chief of Staff, NCBDDD, NCCDPHP, NCHHSTP, NCHS, NCIPC, NCSTLTPHIW, OBPA, OPPE) are Documented as Acting today but their predecessors’ departure cause and the exact onset date of the Acting designation were not independently traced per seat — they could reflect ordinary turnover rather than the administration’s actions. Reading this dimension at the stricter standard (only the 3 traced seats count toward “non-ordinary exit or vacant/acting over 180 days”) gives 3/22 = 13.6 percent, below even the 25 percent anchor for a 2. This profile reads D2 conservatively at 2 — treating the raw, Documented 54.5 percent current-Acting share as sufficient on its own to clear the 25-percent-or-more anchor (an institution cannot plausibly have half its bureau-head seats filled only in an acting capacity, 14 months into a single administration, purely by ordinary-turnover coincidence), while declining to credit the stricter 50-percent anchor for 3 without seat-by-seat confirmation of cause and duration. If that confirmation were obtained and showed most of the 9 untraced seats also stem from documented non-ordinary exits past 180 days, D2 would move to 3 — the composite would then be 71 rather than 67, still Severely impaired (see the sensitivity note above).

Stated rationale: see Basis for Inclusion.

D3 — Mission and statutory-function delivery

Reading: unscored. Baseline: none (function list and FY2024 measures not built). Evidence (not scored): surveillance database pauses (see D5) and the stayed immunization-schedule process (see D4) bear on CDC’s functions, but each belongs primarily to another dimension (Rule 4) and neither has a measured FY2024 comparison.

D4 — Independence and legal-authority erosion

Reading: 3 (higher of the two sub-axes; de facto 3, de jure lower). Baseline: the ACIP-based process in force on 2025-01-19, under which an ACIP recommendation takes effect after adoption by the CDC Director (42 C.F.R. § 147.130(a)(1)(ii), cited in the court’s order). Evidence:

• D4-E1 (Documented, CRS IN12684): the HHS Secretary removed all 17 members of ACIP on 2025-06-09.
• D4-E2 (Documented, CDC): the Acting Director’s 2026-01-05 memo revised the childhood immunization schedule, which CDC’s release describes as acting on a presidential memorandum.
• D4-E3 (Documented, court order, AAP v. Kennedy Doc. 291, 2026-03-16): the court held the January memo contrary to law (the Director acted without consulting ACIP) and arbitrary and capricious, found the ACIP reconstitution violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act’s fair-balance requirement for preliminary-relief purposes (as characterised in the federal defendants’ brief, which quotes the order: only six of fifteen members had “any meaningful experience in vaccines”), and stayed the memo, 13 appointments and all votes of the reconstituted committee. The federal defendants appealed (First Circuit No. 26-1503).
• D4-E4 (Credibly reported, immunize.org): CDC restored the official child, adolescent and adult immunization schedules to their July 2, 2025 versions to comply with the March 16 order, reinstating routine recommendations for hepatitis A/B (including the birth dose), influenza, meningococcal ACWY, rotavirus and HPV. The federal defendants filed a notice of appeal 2026-04-29; the First Circuit granted expedited briefing 2026-06-16; briefing continued through at least 2026-09-22 with no ruling on the merits as of this capture (No. 26-1503, per the Georgetown Law litigation tracker’s docket filings).
• Anchor: “override of a statutory determination” gives 3. Score 4 (“decision functions directed from outside the chain and documented”) is arguable because a presidential memorandum and the Secretary directed the decision, but a bureau’s parent department and the President sit inside its chain of command, so 4 is not applied (the same reading the FEMA pilot took).
• R6-a: the schedule itself has been restored — an actual compliance action, not merely an order — so the specific January 2026 memo’s practical effect is reversed at the cutoff. This does not lower the reading: the override of ACIP’s statutory role occurred and was found contrary to law, which is the Documented fact the anchor reads on; a later, court-compelled reversal of its effect does not erase that a bureau director bypassed the statutory advisory process once already. The ACIP reconstitution (13 appointees, all votes) remains stayed and the appeal of the underlying ruling itself is unresolved, so R6-a’s “ordered or appealed reversal does not count” still governs the legal status, even though the practical schedule has reverted. R6-c: the Documented fact that carries the 3 is the court order itself, read in the First Circuit addendum.

Stated rationale: the federal defendants relied on the Secretary’s general authority at 42 U.S.C. § 243(a) and, after the order, renewed ACIP’s charter (court filings, as summarised in the order and the briefing). CDC’s own release frames the memo as implementing a presidential memorandum.

D5 — Data, information and statistical integrity

Reading: 2. Baseline: the 82 regularly updated CDC databases identified by the audit. Evidence:

• D5-E1 (Credibly reported — a peer-reviewed study via its news summaries; the study itself was not read): the audit (published in Annals of Internal Medicine, per EMJ Reviews, The Scientist and AJMC’s citation of it) found 44 of 82 routinely updated databases (54 percent) current and 38 (46 percent) paused as of its assessment; of the 38 paused, 33 (87 percent) addressed vaccination topics and none of the 44 current databases did. On recheck 2025-12-02, only 1 of the 38 had been updated. Most pauses began in March and April 2025.
• D5-E2 (Documented, CDC page): the vaccine-autism page now states that the claim vaccines do not cause autism is “not an evidence-based claim”. Whether this reflects documented political direction was not established (CIDRAP quotes a former deputy director saying scientists were not involved, per the stub).
• Reversed, not counted (R6-a): some YRBSS data and documentation removed in early 2025 were reinstated as part of a legal case (SHADAC); the peak is recorded here only.
• Anchor: “several datasets removed or series discontinued; partial series breaks” gives 2. Score 3 needs a flagship series discontinued or a release altered outside statute; pauses are not discontinuations, and no head was removed over release content. Credibly reported caps at 2 in any case.

Stated rationale: the page cites the Data Quality Act (stub, from the CDC page). No reason for the pauses was found; the audit authors note personnel losses and policy directives as possible contributors.

D6 — Funding, grants and contracts

Reading: 4 on the literal share test, with a basis problem that makes the level uncertain. Baseline: FY2024 core public health program level $9,248 million (CRS Table 1); FY2025 $9,248 million; FY2026 enacted $9,227 million. Evidence:

• D6-E1 (Documented, HHS TAGGS terminated-grants list, file dated 2026-07-24, parsed for this profile): 444 awards with CDC as the awarding division; total obligated $16.76 billion across their lives; unliquidated at termination $5.78 billion ($5,778,669,381, computed). 403 of the 444 are dated 2025-03-24 ($5.76 billion unliquidated). Termination bases as labelled: 311 awards “Departmental Authority” ($5.51 billion), 12 “Termination for Cause” ($5.7 million), 121 with no basis label in the extract ($264.7 million). Award titles include immunization, “Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity” and COVID-19 response programs, which suggests many are COVID-era funds (inferred; funding source not verified).
• D6-E2 (Documented, CRS R47207, updated 2026-05-14): CRS reports from the same HHS list that, as of 2026-05-13, HHS had terminated 444 CDC grants totaling $5.78 billion in unliquidated obligations. The recomputation above reproduces both numbers; the two are one lineage (CRS cites the same HHS file).
• D6-E3 (Credibly reported): a TRO of 2026-02-12 blocked termination of more than $600 million in grants to four states (order not read).
• Not used: Grant Witness reports $6.91 billion “lost funding” at 2026-05-04 and the CDC Data Project cites $2.9 billion in cancelled contracts and $11.4 billion in emergency supplemental cuts. Both are advocacy-tier or tracker counts with other definitions.
• Net of reversal (R6-a): the HHS list appears to be net of court-ordered reinstatements. The state mix is lopsided: Texas ($1.18 billion), Florida ($725 million), Indiana, Georgia, Missouri and Ohio lead, while California has no award on the list and Washington, Colorado and Minnesota have one small award each. That is consistent with relief for plaintiff states, but the list does not say so, and the peak was not measured. The TRO covers $600 million that may or may not be in the list.
• Share test (computed). $5.78 billion against the FY2024 base of $9.248 billion is 62.5 percent, which meets the 50 percent anchor (4). The numerator is multi-year unliquidated balances on awards whose total obligation was $16.76 billion; the denominator is one year’s appropriation. The basis is not like for like, and Congress kept the annual base flat ($9.248 billion to $9.227 billion). A like-for-like measure was not found. Read as 4 here because the anchor is share-based and the primary record meets it (R6-c); if the unliquidated funds are weighted down to an annual equivalent the reading could fall to 3 or 2. See the calibration note.

Stated rationale / improvements: not captured. Congress did not adopt the FY2026 request’s roughly 42 percent net cut; it enacted $9,227 million (CRS).

D7 — Public-facing service and downstream impact

Reading: unscored. Baseline: none (no FY2024 service metric collected). Evidence considered and not scored: 2026 is the United States’ worst year for measles since 1991 (2,318 cases as of this pass, surpassing 2025’s 1,958 confirmed through 2025-12-16), with the US and Mexico’s measles-elimination status under review. National kindergarten MMR coverage fell from 95.2 percent (2019–20) to 92.4–92.5 percent (2025–26), below the 95 percent herd-immunity threshold, with exemptions at a record 4.2 percent. This is not scored here: vaccination-coverage decline has multiple, mostly pre-2025 and non-CDC causes (state policy, hesitancy trends), and the rule requires a Documented fact tying CDC’s own capacity loss to a measured service degradation for a 3 or 4, which this pass did not establish. The stronger, more directly attributable candidate is the D5 finding that 33 of CDC’s 38 paused surveillance databases (87 percent) cover vaccination topics, paused during the same period as this outbreak — a plausible link between D5’s data-integrity damage and D7’s service outcome, but Rule 4 (no double counting) keeps the data-pause fact in D5, and no Documented source yet ties a specific surveillance gap to a specific response delay. Flagged as the strongest Research Lead for scoring D7 in a future pass.

D8 — Legal compliance record

Reading: 1 (adverse preliminary rulings). D8 is exempt from net-of-reversal: adjudicated findings stand even if appealed or later cured. Adjudicated findings:

• D8-E1 (Documented, AAP v. Kennedy, D. Mass. 1:25-cv-11916-BEM, Doc. 291, 2026-03-16): preliminary relief under 5 U.S.C. § 705 against the January 2026 memo (contrary to law; arbitrary and capricious) and the ACIP reconstitution (FACA). The court denied relief on the May 2025 COVID-vaccine directive as not final or moot. Status: appeal pending (First Circuit No. 26-1503); district proceedings reported stayed pending appeal (PacerMonitor). Whether CDC itself is a named defendant was not confirmed (caption reads “Kennedy, et al.”); the ruling stays CDC’s own memo.
• D8-E2 (Documented, CourtListener docket 72265112): State of Illinois v. Vought, N.D. Ill. 1:26-cv-01566, filed 2026-02-11 by Illinois, California, Colorado and Minnesota (with AFSCME and AFSCME Council 31), Judge Manish Suresh Shah presiding. CDC is a named defendant, alongside HHS, DHS, DOT, FEMA, OMB and named officials (Kennedy, Vought, O’Neill, Duffy, Noem, Bhattacharya, Evans, Trump); cause of action is the Administrative Procedure Act. Judge Shah granted a 14-day TRO on 2026-02-12 blocking roughly $602 million in CDC grant terminations to the four plaintiff states (Credibly reported as to the order’s reasoning: Becker’s and WTTW report the judge wrote that “recent statements plausibly suggest” the stated rationale masks hostility to “sanctuary jurisdictions”; the order itself was not read in full). The plaintiffs also argue the terminations exceed statutory authority by imposing retroactive conditions on already-awarded funds.
• Anchor: at least one adverse preliminary ruling gives 1. Score 2 needs a final adverse judgment, a GAO Impoundment Control Act violation or an OSC finding; none was found for CDC. The preliminary rulings run through APA, FACA and funding regimes, but a stay or TRO on “likely to succeed” is not an adjudicated violation, so the three-violation anchor for 3 is not applied.

Stated rationale: see D4.

Recoverability (D9, second axis)

Recorded: 3, horizon H3. Binding constraint: workforce (D1), with independence (D4) close: rebuilding senior scientific staff is a pipeline problem (H2 to H3), while D4’s judicial relief is H1 and its statutory hardening H3. D6 (H1 to H2 if the funds can still be obligated) and D5 (H1 for data restorable from archives) are faster. Recovery readiness: leadership commitment a Senate-confirmed director since 2026-08-05 whose direction on restoration is not established, and three of four vacated center/office directorships remain Acting 14 months on; capacity headcount down 23.6 to 29.1 percent (OPM) and a hiring push reported but unmeasured (gross accessions of 255 through Aug 2026 show no realized hiring surge); action plan none found; monitoring two federal courts, CRS and an appeal pending; demonstrated progress a court-compelled schedule restoration and a confirmed director, but no Tier-1 backfill and no service metric. Preservation priority: flagged. Band (Severely impaired) is worse than Impaired and recoverability is 3, meeting the tracker’s preservation-priority criterion (§6, D9).

Instruments of Harm

Litigation

Source: CourtListener RECAP search by full party name "Centers for Disease Control and Prevention", filed_after=01/20/2025, run 2026-10-09 (timed out, unverified — the stub’s keyword search, “CDC”, 3,867 dockets, was noise). This pass ran one targeted CourtListener lookup (2026-10-14) to confirm the N.D. Ill. grants case, which succeeded. The general party-name search was not retried this pass (quota discipline); the litigation list below is therefore still not a confirmed complete docket list for CDC, only the cases independently confirmed.

Reversal Pointers

Routes, not predictions or legal opinions. Remedy classes: STAT statutory, REG regulatory, REHIRE reinstatement or rehiring, FUND funding restoration, DATA data restoration, OIG oversight, LIT litigation. Horizons: H1 up to 12 months, H2 1 to 4 years, H3 4 to 10 years, H4 over 10 years. TRC track: A prosecution, B institutional reform, C truth-telling and record. Given for dimensions read at 1 or higher.

Research Leads

Alleged, single-source or unconfirmed items. These never move a score and name no individual not already in the ledger.

• Build the statutory-function table with FY2024 measures (D3) and find a measured service metric with an FY2024 baseline (D7) — the measles-outbreak/vaccination-coverage and database-pause facts in D7 above are the leading candidates but are not yet Documented as CDC-attributable.
• Confirm, seat by seat, when each of the 9 untraced Acting Tier-1 positions (Chief of Staff, NCBDDD, NCCDPHP, NCHHSTP, NCHS, NCIPC, NCSTLTPHIW, OBPA, OPPE) became Acting and why their predecessor left; this would let D2 move from the conservative reading (2) to the raw-share reading (3) if most trace to non-ordinary exits past 180 days.
• Read the State of Illinois v. Vought docket (1:26-cv-01566) beyond the TRO: later status, any preliminary-injunction ruling, and whether it settles or proceeds to judgment.
• Search HHS reduction-in-force suits and other COVID-era grant suits (e.g. Colorado v. Kennedy) for additional CDC findings not yet in this profile.
• Whether the TAGGS list is net of court-ordered reinstatements, and the peak termination total before reinstatement.
• HHS’s stated reason for the 2025-03-24 terminations.
• Whether the Director’s removal was examined by an inspector general or Congress.
• DOGE access to CDC data systems under HHS technology leadership (Clark Minor — Former HHS Chief Information Officer): outlet source needed.
• Read the Annals of Internal Medicine audit itself (not just its news summaries) for authors, exact publication date and whether paused databases have resumed since December 2025.
• Stale item from the stub: the CBS Atlanta total of 3,810 (3,539 left plus 271 on leave) is kept only as a reported sum; the leave group is not counted as separated.

History

Prior scores are kept; a score change is never silent (methodology §13).

Sources

• OPM Federal Workforce Data (EHRI), agency HE, subelement HE39, retrieved 2026-10-09 — https://data.opm.gov/resources/data-sources — primary_official (docs/ada-pilot/data/opm-workforce.json)
• CourtListener (RECAP), State of Illinois v. Vought, N.D. Ill. 1:26-cv-01566, docket 72265112, queried 2026-10-14 — https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/72265112/state-of-illinois-v-vought/ — primary_official (court record)
• Georgetown Law Litigation Tracker, AAP v. Kennedy docket filings (notice of appeal 2026-04-29; order on oral-argument motion 2026-08-19; plaintiffs’ response to notice of supplemental authority 2026-09-22) — https://litigationtracker.law.georgetown.edu/ — research_institution (hosts primary filings)
• immunize.org, “CDC restores official U.S. immunization schedules to July 2, 2025, versions,” IZ Express — https://www.immunize.org/news/iz-express/issue/1871/ — advocacy_org (named visibly; reports CDC’s own compliance action)
• Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, “Court order presses pause on new ACIP committee and changes to childhood vaccination schedule” — https://ccf.georgetown.edu/2026/03/31/court-order-presses-pause-on-new-acip-committee-and-changes-to-childhood-vaccination-schedule/ — research_institution
• Becker’s Hospital Review, “Federal judge blocks $602M in CDC cuts to 4 states” — https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/legal-regulatory-issues/federal-judge-blocks-602m-in-cdc-cuts-to-4-states/ — news
• WTTW News, “Judge Grants Temporary Order Halting Cuts to Public Health Grants in Illinois, Other States” — https://news.wttw.com/2026/02/13/judge-grants-temporary-order-halting-cuts-public-health-grants-illinois-other-states — news
• EMJ Reviews, “Unexplained Pauses in CDC Surveillance Databases” (summarizing the Annals of Internal Medicine audit) — https://www.emjreviews.com/microbiology-infectious-diseases/news/unexplained-pauses-in-cdc-surveillance-databases/ — news
• The Scientist, “Nearly Half of Once Frequently Updated CDC Databases Are Now Outdated” — https://www.the-scientist.com/nearly-half-of-once-frequently-updated-cdc-databases-are-now-outdated-73972 — news
• Mahomet Daily (AP wire), “CDC Reports 2,318 Measles Cases in 2026, Topping Last Year’s Total” — https://mahometdaily.com/cdc-reports-2318-measles-cases-in-2026-topping-last-years-total/ — news
• Newsweek, “Map Shows Vaccine Rates Among Kindergarteners Compared to Outbreak Hotspots” — https://www.newsweek.com/map-shows-vaccine-rates-among-kindergarteners-compared-to-outbreak-hotspots-12335436 — news
• Bloomberg Law, “New CDC Leaders Vow to Boost Skeleton Staff Left After DOGE Cuts” — https://news.bloomberglaw.com/states-of-play/new-cdc-leaders-vow-to-boost-skeleton-staff-left-after-doge-cuts — news
• Congressional Research Service, “Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Funding Overview,” R47207, updated 2026-05-14 — https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/R/PDF/R47207/R47207.12.pdf — research_institution (reproduces HHS data)
• HHS (TAGGS), “HHS Grants Terminated,” file dated 2026-07-24 — https://taggs.hhs.gov/content/Data/HHS_Grants_Terminated.pdf — primary_official
• CDC, FY2027 Congressional Justification (FTE exhibit) — https://www.cdc.gov/budget/documents/fy2027/fy-2027-cdc-cj.pdf — primary_official
• CDC, leadership page (captured 2026-10-14, superseding the 2026-10-09 capture, which had dropped titles) — https://www.cdc.gov/about/leadership/index.html — primary_official
• CDC, vaccine-safety page — https://www.cdc.gov/vaccine-safety/about/autism.html — primary_official
• CDC, release on the immunization schedule memo — https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2026/2026-cdc-acts-on-presidential-memorandum-to-update-childhood-immunization-schedule.html — primary_official
• U.S. District Court, D. Mass., AAP v. Kennedy, Doc. 291 (2026-03-16), as reproduced in the federal defendants’ First Circuit brief — https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/vaccine-panel-stay-appellant-brief.pdf — primary_official (court record via a news site’s copy)
• U.S. Senate, roll call vote 219, 2026-08-05 — https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1192/vote_119_2_00219.htm — primary_official
• Congressional Research Service, IN12684 — https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IN12684 — research_institution
• WABE/AP, CDC workforce dashboard — https://www.wabe.org/more-than-a-year-of-cdc-workforce-cuts-detailed-in-new-data-dashboard — news
• CBS Atlanta, staffing analysis (post) — https://www.facebook.com/CBSNewsAtlanta/posts/the-cdc-is-operating-with-about-30-fewer-employees-than-it-had-in-march-2025-acc/1622602769879635 — news
• CBS Atlanta, article cited in the stub — https://www.cbsnews.com/atlanta/news/cdc-staffing-drops-30-as-layoffs-retirements-and-resignations-reshape-agency — news
• AFGE Local 2883, dashboard summary — https://afge2883ga.org/cdc-employees/cdc-staff-changes-march-2025-april-2026 — advocacy_org (union; not used as an official count)
• ABC News, Schwartz confirmation, 2026-08-05 — https://abcnews.com/Health/senate-votes-confirm-dr-erica-schwartz-cdc-director/story?id=135398156 — news
• PBS NewsHour, Monarez ouster — https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/susan-monarez-ousted-as-cdc-director-after-less-than-a-month-hhs-announces — news
• MedPage Today, 2025-08-27 — https://www.medpagetoday.com/washington-watch/washington-watch/117189 — news
• Healthbeat, 2025-08-28 — https://www.healthbeat.org/atlanta/2025/08/28/cdc-leaders-resign-rfk-jr-susan-monarez — news
• CBS News, resignations — https://www.cbsnews.com/news/senior-cdc-officials-resign-after-monarez-ouster-cite-concerns-over-scientific-independence — news
• Reuters, 2025-08-28 — https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-cdc-chief-fired-after-weeks-role-challenges-ouster-four-top-officials-resign-2025-08-28 — news
• Reuters, 2025-10-14 — https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/cdc-set-lose-quarter-staff-with-latest-layoffs-union-says-2025-10-14 — news
• The Hill — https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5474217-three-cdc-leaders-resign-over-weaponizing-of-public-health — news
• NPR, 2025-02-14 — https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/02/14/nx-s1-5297913/cdc-layoffs-hhs-trump-doge — news
• Federal News Network, 2026-03 — https://federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce/2026/03/cdc-plans-hiring-push-to-fill-gaps-from-last-years-widespread-layoffs — news
• AABB, 2025-09-03 — https://www.aabb.org/news-resources/news/article/2025/09/03/susan-monarez-fired-as-director-of-cdc — news
• PBS/AP, vaccine-safety page change — https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/cdc-vaccine-safety-webpage-changed-to-contradict-scientific-conclusion-that-vaccines-dont-cause-autism — news
• AJMC, CDC database pauses — https://www.ajmc.com/view/unexplained-pauses-hit-nearly-half-of-monthly-updated-cdc-databases-raising-transparency-concerns — news
• DocGuide, CDC database pauses — https://docguide.com/article/unexplained-cdc-data-pauses-raise-concerns-for-public-health-decisions-1?article_title=Unexplained+CDC+data+pauses+raise+concerns+for+public+health+decisions&article_id=7085879 — news
• SHADAC, federal health survey data — https://www.shadac.org/news/federal-health-survey-data-releases-landscape-2025 — research_institution
• Feldesman, TRO summary, 2026-02-18 — https://www.feldesman.com/judge-blocks-600-million-in-grant-terminations-after-cdc-first-notifies-congress — news (law-firm summary)
• CIDRAP, CDC funding cuts to 4 states — https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/public-health/cdc-funding-cuts-4-states-limbo-after-judge-s-ruling — research_institution
• George Washington University, CDC economic impact report (2025-09) — https://accountablehealth.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs6441/files/2025-09/cdc_economic_impact_report_0.pdf — research_institution
• PacerMonitor, AAP v. Kennedy docket summary — https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/58889124/American_Academy_of_Pediatrics_et_al_v_Kennedy_et_al — news
• CourtListener, AAP v. Kennedy docket — https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70722326/american-academy-of-pediatrics-v-kennedy — research_institution

Factual correction requests: Contact factcheck@citizenanalyst.ai.

Cross-References

• Susan Monarez — Removed CDC Director, Jim O’Neill — Former HHS Deputy Secretary and Acting CDC Director, Jay Bhattacharya — NIH Director, Erica Schwartz — Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — Political Accountability Profile, Brad Smith — DOGE Health Agency Operator, Luke Farritor — Thiel Fellow at DOGE, Clark Minor — Former HHS Chief Information Officer, Dave Weldon — Withdrawn CDC Director Nominee (withdrawn CDC director nominee)