E mployees 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.

The cuts are part of a plan by President Donald Trump and billionaire ally Elon Musk to shrink staffing levels in federal agencies.

The Trump administration began mass layoffs of 10,000 staffers at U.S. health agencies on Tuesday, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation, with security guards barring entry to some employees just hours after they received dismissal notices.

A public health association and one of the nation’s largest worker unions are suing the Trump administration over the abrupt cancellation of hundreds of research grants, arguing that the moves were arbitrary and capricious and that the federal grant process is supposed to be above politics.

A group of scientists and health groups sued the National Institutes of Health on Wednesday, arguing that an “ideological purge” of research funding is illegal and threatens medical cures

The National Institutes of Health said it pulled the policy because of language on diversity and inclusion, in line with directives from the Trump administration