The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has begun laying off thousands of employees as part of a significant restructuring effort. Thousands of federal health employees, including doctors, researchers, and scientists, found themselves without a job as the HHS started sending notices as part of a sweeping overhaul of the agency.

Employees of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) knew that mass layoffs would be coming on April 1. But many did not expect the cuts to be so deep—or the implications of the layoffs to be so potentially detrimental to the health and wellbeing of American families.