The Trump administration has cancelled over $12 billion in grant funding to state and local health departments over the course of this week under the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative. This has thrown healthcare programs into disarray with the state health department in Virginia already beginning to lay off staff because of the funding cuts.
“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. HHS is prioritizing funding projects that will deliver on President Trump’s mandate to address our chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again,” the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement on Wednesday.
Notices about this termination in funding were sent out this week to local health departments and organizations, according to Lori Tremmel Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials. Freeman said that the group could see about $10 million in funding rescinded.
READ: DOGE leaders Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy target 94% of remote federal workers (December 9, 2024)
Freeman also noted that while these were Covid-era grants, they were largely part of agreements that extended beyond the emergency. “Some of the work of the emergency could be extended in an effort to prepare better for the next emergency, or to build infrastructure,” she said, and added that some examples of this work include laboratory testing when people are sick, keeping immunization rates up and monitoring wastewater samples for the spread of disease.
Brian Castrucci, president and CEO of the de Beaumont Foundation, a nonprofit that studies and supports the U.S. public health workforce, called the termination “a devastating blow to public health” across the country, in big cities and rural areas.
Others who criticized this move include Dr. Philip Huang, director of Dallas Health and Human Services, who claims this would affect epidemiology, contact tracing and lab testing, and also hit efforts like diabetes education programs at local community centers, and Mesa County Public Health, which said it will lose almost $350,000, affecting the salaries of up to 10 employees — 12% of its workforce. Community health workers, nurses and epidemiologists in Virginia, have also told Axios that they began receiving termination notices.
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When is it going to dawn on Trump/Musk supporters that he is establishing an oligarchy by destroying programs that help the working class while fully supporting the billionaire class working class tax dollars?
Are you okay with his attack on free speech, lawyer firms that defend people he doesn’t like, threats to annex other nations (by whatever means) just like the old Soviet Union and today’s Putin, taking away rights for women and diversity, equity and inclusion? What would you say if you had been born any one of those who white, male society considers unwelcome immigrants and/or citizens who express their opposition to Trump, only to be arrested and imprisoned by Trump?