The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Epidemic Intelligence Service officers — a group known as the CDC's "disease detectives" — feared the impact of job cuts.

On February 13, the Senate confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services in a narrow 52-48 vote.

"The country is less safe," Dr. Anne Schuchat, a former top-ranking CDC official and alumna of the program, told CBS News. "These are the deployable assets critical for investigating new threats ...