Nursing student Jessica Lam administers a COVID-19 test inside the lobby of Milford High School, Dec. 18, 2020. Milford’s Public Health Dept. hosted a one day free testing site from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., run by Fallon Ambulance.
Washington D.C. – Federal health officials announced Tuesday that they are rescinding $11.4 billion in COVID-19-related funds that were previously allocated to state and local public health departments. This includes grants for testing, vaccination, and programs aimed at combating health disparities among high-risk and underserved populations.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) stated that, with the official end of the COVID-19 public health emergency, it was time to discontinue funding for pandemic-related initiatives. “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 department said in a statement. This decision comes as termination notices for the funds began to go out on Monday, with the money expected to be recouped within 30 days.
The bulk of the funding had been directed toward COVID-19 testing, vaccinations, and community health workers. A significant portion was also allocated to efforts addressing health disparities among minority populations, a project established in 2021. Despite the official end of the public health emergency, Lori Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County & City Health Officials, expressed concerns about the timing of the cuts, noting that much of the funding was set to expire in the coming months anyway. “It’s just cruel and unusual behavior,” Freeman said.
Further complicating matters, the National Institutes of Health has also canceled over two dozen COVID-related research grants. This comes on the heels of the Trump administration’s decision to shut down the COVID test ordering site, covidtest.gov, earlier this month.
While the federal health emergency is over, the virus is still taking a toll. According to CDC data, COVID-19 continues to claim around 458 lives each week on average. The withdrawal of funds is raising alarms about how local health departments will manage ongoing public health issues. Some of the COVID-related funding had been used for essential services like wastewater surveillance, which has been crucial in detecting not only COVID but also flu and emerging diseases. The recent measles outbreak, for example, was tracked through systems originally put in place for COVID.
The decision is having immediate effects on states like Washington, where over $125 million in COVID-related funding has been canceled. Health officials in Los Angeles County are facing potential losses of more than $80 million, funding that supports disease surveillance, outbreak investigations, and infection control services at healthcare facilities.
With the federal government’s decision to pull back funds, health departments are now left to navigate the uncertain future of their pandemic-era programs and how to address the ongoing public health challenges they face.
