Despite knowing that her days are likely numbered at the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research and Development in Research Triangle Park, epidemiologist Kristen Rappazzo will be doing her job till the very end. “We are all still sort of grimly working, but definitely there is a pall over everyone at the office,” she said. “Sometimes people are like, ‘Well, why are we even bothering to start new things?’ I’m like, ‘I can’t sit around waiting to be fired, so I’m going to keep researching, and even if it means starting a new study that will never get finished, right now that’s my job, so I’m going to keep doing it.’” The EPA office at RTP is likely to fall victim to mass cuts as the Department of Government Efficiency, an initiative of the President Donald Trump administration headed by Elon Musk, has continued its efforts to fire thousands of government workers across the country. Rappazzo said one of the main ways employees are handling the seeming inevitability of lo...