Trump administration to cut $11.4 billion in COVID funding from local health departments
Federal health officials said they are cutting $11.4 billion in COVID-19-related funds for state and local public health departments.
www.cbsnews.com
“Federal health officials said they are cutting $11.4 billion in COVID-19-related funds for state and local public health departments — money that was was largely used for COVID-19 testing, virus research and community health jobs.
"The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago," the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement Tuesday.
… The statement said the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expects to recover the money beginning 30 days after termination notices, which began being sent out on Monday.
… "This ... is money that had been going to state, local, territorial, tribal health departments across the country, and as we know, as was the case with a lot of COVID funding, it was not just supporting COVID-related programs, but many other things," she said, noting
wastewater surveillance as one example of what's being lost with these cuts, which helps experts look for infectious diseases and other toxins in the water.
"This has direct applications to the
measles outbreak in West Texas right now. It gives us an early warning system for where there might be
measles in other areas, where they need to be focusing measles vaccinations, and that program is falling victim to this," Gounder said.
"And state (and) local health departments really depend on that CDC money. The CDC functions as a funnel of funding to the state and local level, and in some cases, it's 90% of their budget."
Lori Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, said much of the funding was set to end soon anyway. "It's ending in the next six months," she said. "There's no reason — why rescind it now? It's just cruel and unusual behavior." …”