The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is anticipated to eliminate over $11 billion in COVID funding, according to a Department of Health and Human Services official who spoke to NBC News on Tuesday.
As reported by the TV news outlet, the CDC is discarding the $11.4 billion COVID fund that was originally set up to support individual states, community health centers, non-governmental organizations, and international bodies.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is behind us, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars addressing a non-existent pandemic that Americans have moved on from years ago,” stated Andrew Nixon, HHS director of communications, in an interview with NBC News.
Since the end of the federal public health emergency on May 11, 2023, COVID-19 infection rates and fatalities have significantly decreased. Nonetheless, data available on the CDC website indicates that 1.2 million individuals have lost their lives to COVID-19 since the public health emergency ceased.
This reduction in COVID-19 funding aligns with the goal of President Donald Trump’s administration to significantly cut down on federal spending.
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As noted in a White House memo, the Trump administration set up a temporary federal agency, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), to curtail federal spending and enhance government efficiency and productivity.
DOGE aims to achieve $1 trillion in federal savings by September of this year.
According to the DOGE website’s “Wall of Receipts,” the HHS faces the most substantial budget cuts among all federal agencies.
President Trump had previously expressed a goal of
