Amid a third-week shutdown, a CDC scientist laid off by the Trump administration warned that cuts will cost lives and hobble outbreak response, likening the upheaval to 'Squid Games.' A federal judge temporarily halted government layoffs, pausing about 600 CDC terminations after hundreds of initial notices were rescinded from roughly 1,000. The administration says more than 4,000 federal workers have been laid off and expects the total to exceed 10,000. HHS defended the reductions as trimming 'bloated bureaucracy.' The CDC has shed about 3,000 staff this year, with public health offices hit as measles cases rise in South Carolina.

Prepared by Lauren Mitchell and reviewed by editorial team.