CDC pulls back $11B in Covid funding to health departments

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is pulling back $11.4 billion in funds allocated in response to the pandemic to state and community health departments, nongovernment organizations and international recipients, the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed Tuesday.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will not waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago,” HHS Director of Communications Andrew Nixon said in a press release. “HHS is prioritizing funding projects that can deliver on President Trump’s mandate to deal with our chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again.“

HHS oversees 13 agencies, including CDC, which is tasked with protecting the nation’s health. Notices began going out Monday and awardees have 30 days to reconcile their expenditures. Figures are subject to alter.

The funding slash comes on the heels of other cuts under recent Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., including the canceling of tons of of hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants for research into vaccine hesitancy, LGBTQ populations and supporting HIV prevention.

“Now that the pandemic is over, the grants and cooperative agreements aren’t any longer vital as their limited purpose has run out,” read notices of termination sent to grantees on Monday and shared with NBC News.

The federal public health emergency ended May 11, 2023, but greater than 1.2 million Americans have died from Covid in keeping with the CDC. Though infection has slowed and the disease has turn out to be milder, tons of of individuals still die every week from Covid, and long Covid symptoms proceed to cause debilitating medical problems in some cases. 

The clawed-back funds were largely getting used for Covid testing, vaccination, community medical experts and initiatives to deal with Covid health disparities amongst high-risk and underserved populations, including racial and ethnic minority populations and rural communities, in addition to global Covid projects, in keeping with talking points emailed from CDC leadership to agency departments on Tuesday.

CDC reviewed an inventory of HHS-provided Covid grants and cooperative agreements and identified the programs that were not needed, in keeping with the talking points.

An inventory of projects for the rescinded funds was not immediately available. Greg Flynn, media relations director for the Mississippi State Department of Health, confirmed the state had received notice of the funding decision and was “currently working to evaluate the potential impacts to our agency.”

Charla Haley, public information officer for Utah’s Department of Health, said in an email, “We’re currently evaluating impact.”

Up to now, HHS has made the deepest budget cuts government-wide under the Trump administration’s efforts to radically slash federal funding, in keeping with a tally listed on The Department of Government Efficiency’s website.

HHS also canceled $877 million in grants to the Texas Department of Health and $482 million to Florida’s health department amongst other cuts this week, in keeping with DOGE’s website.