Mainly it is the people who left and were fired. The brightest would jump ship instantly when DOGE started firing, and these scientists had lots of places to go. And the people fired probably had a lot of expertise. I have seen similar happen many times in computer science over the last 40+ years in the business. Once a company starts firing, the smartest people jumps ship.
But yes, I cannot trust the FDA anymore because the people still there will be too scared to push real science. They may taint their results even without doing it on purpose due to that fear.
The same is starting to happen in medial research, but seems that is getting more press. Trump/Kennedy just handed all the US future medical advancement directly to China, and I am sure more will come. Where do you think these bio researchers will go ? China will hire them and maybe even set up a shell corp. for them in the US so they do not have to relocate. Just the knowledge and patents will be sent to China.
there was a 20% headcount reduction, down to a very meager 15,000 people. you dont believe the FDA can properly function with 15,000 employees?