Corporations do this to maximize profit. The US government is supposed to maximize helping citizens, it’s what we pay for. The U.S. government is essentially a non profit.

For the US government, profit-motivated strategy is inappropriate.

We need the people they fired to be doing their job even when there isn’t a pandemic. Having these people in staff is exact the same as hiring firefighters and cops, they’re for responding to emergencies. And just like firefighters and cops, they do investigation, training and research when there isn’t an emergency.

These people should not have been culled. Doing so when there isn’t an imminent pandemic is stupid enough, but sacking them when there’s already several out reals in progress is monumentally stupid. It’s the exact kind of move I’d expect a short term thinker who has never dealt with personal consequences to act.