Deep Cuts Erode Foundations Of U.S. Public Health System

Americans are losing the people and programs dedicated to keeping them healthy.

Experts say the Trump administration is cutting public health funding on an unprecedented scale—pulling $11 billion in direct federal support. I Photo: CSF Helen Diller Medical Center

Gone are the specialists who were managing a measles outbreak in Ohio, the workers who drove vans to schools in North Carolina to offer vaccinations, and a program that provided free tests to sick individuals in Tennessee, Laura Ungar and Michelle R. Smith reported for the Associated Press (AP).

State and local health departments—responsible for critical but often invisible work such as inspecting restaurants, monitoring wastewater for dangerous pathogens, responding to outbreaks before they escalate, and many other tasks essential to protecting public health—are being hollowed out.

“Nobody wants to swim in a community pool and come out with a rash or disease. Nobody wants to walk outside and take a breath of fresh air only to start wheezing,” said Lori Tremmel Freeman, executive director of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

But local health officials say they now have no choice but to scale back dramatically.

Experts say the Trump administration is cutting public health funding on an unprecedented scale—pulling $11 billion in direct federal support now that the pandemic has been declared over, and eliminating 20,000 jobs at national health agencies that assist and support local public health efforts.

Additional billions in cuts have been proposed.

Together, public health leaders warn, these reductions are shrinking the system to a shadow of its former self—threatening even routine operations at a time when the country is facing its deadliest measles outbreak since at least the 1990s, rising whooping cough cases, and the looming threat of bird flu spreading among humans.