Public health work by universities, hospitals, social services and health departments around North Carolina will be impacted after the Trump administration announced $11.4 billion in immediate cuts, state officials say.
For the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, it will mean more than 80 job losses and at least $100 million in funding cuts, the agency said.
On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told NBC News it was clawing back COVID-19 pandemic funding.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement to The Associated Press: “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.”
NCDHHS officials called the termination of federal grants “abrupt and immediate.” The statement, first reported by Spectrum News, goes on to say that they’re still working to determine the “depth of impact.”
“The federal grants funding impacts a number of areas of work including immunization efforts, funding for the new NC Immunization Registry, infectious disease monitoring and response, behavioral health, substance use disorder services and more,” the statement said. “Some of the impacted funding supports work that is completed by local health departments, universities, hospitals, and local departments of social services.”
Beginning in March 2020, COVID-19 infected more than 3.5 million people in North Carolina and killed 29,059. Tracking cases and deaths ended on May 10, 2023, meaning the total is much higher now.
The disease killed 222 people throughout the United States the week of March 15. That was down from 416 deaths reported the week prior.
DHHS officials said contractors supported by the money are being notified to pause their work until more information is provided by the federal government.
The department didn’t provide the names of the companies or the nature of their work.
But Lori Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County & City Health Officials, told The Associated Press the funding “was being used in significant ways to track flu and patterns of new disease and emerging diseases — and even more recently with the measles outbreak.”
Freeman told the wire service that includes using wastewater monitoring to detect illnesses in a community, which North Carolina does.
Wastewater is still being used in North Carolina to track both the flu and RSV and currently shows spikes in the state.
Measles outbreaks are spreading throughout the United States, and while they haven’t reached North Carolina, 7.2% of residents are not yet vaccinated.
Georgia, Kentucky and Maryland all have confirmed cases.
