Hundreds Rally Against Firing Of Federal Workers, Emphasizing Threats To Public Health

Hundreds of current and former federal employees rallied Wednesday outside the Department of Health and Human Services headquarters, protesting recent firings and their effect on public health, and directing much of their ire at Elon Musk and his agency's efforts to cut spending.

"We are here today to fight for the future of science, to fight for your family's future, to give the American people hope," said Ian Fucci, a cancer researcher at the National Institutes of Health. "Consider the medications you rely on for diabetes, heart disease or cancer. These were developed in large part due to NIH and NIH-funded researchers. Is destroying years of progress into research really serving the American people? No."

Amid frigid temperatures and light snow, attendees chanted slogans such as "Funding, not freezes" and "Stand up, fight back." They carried signs proclaiming, "Protect civil servants because they protect you!" and "In science we trust."

Many said they were there to fight the work of Musk's Department of Government Efficiency and the confusion its workforce reductions have sowed. One sign altered the DOGE acronym to read "Department of Grifting Everything."

"Are we going to shut down the illegal Elon Musk takeover of the government? Yeah, you bet we are," Democratic Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen told the crowd of about 300. "We're going to fight this in the courts. We're going to fight this in the Congress. And there can be no business as usual in the Congress. And we're going to fight this in gatherings like this all over the country."