Opinion: Public health layoffs and tech layoffs: a world of difference

Layoffs in the tech sector — think Google, Amazon, Meta, and the like — from jobs once thought to be secure and prestigious are making headlines. I’ve been seeing an outpouring of media coverage, including support extended toward newly unemployed tech workers, judgements passed on tech leaders, practical suggestions of opportunities, and analyses of underlying causes and next steps.

As a senior epidemiologist recently laid off from working at governmental health departments, this attention makes me wistful (if not downright jealous). Thousands of layoffs have occurred in the public health sector over the past year with little support or fanfare. (Some aren’t calling what’s happening in public health “layoffs.” Whatever the term — “job expirations,” “failure to renew contracts,” “inability to honor commitments,” or the blunt “terminations” — the effect is still the same.)

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