Federal Cuts and Public Health: Social Media Sentiment Among Federal Employees.

Wang, Yi; Crenshaw, Andrew N; Reis, Rodrigo · J Med Internet Res · 2026

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Abstract

Using sentiment analysis of 44,216 public health-related posts from the FedNews Reddit forum (2020-2025), we found that fear and anger scores rose 32% and 63%, respectively, in 2025 over 2024. These results underscore the adverse mental health impact of federal workforce changes and funding cuts on public health employees.