Billions in COVID Relief Pulled from Local Health Agencies—What It Means for Public Health

Federal health officials announced Tuesday that they will be reclaiming $11.4 billion of COVID-19 funds from state and local health departments, as well as other health organizations across the country.

The Department of Health and Human Services released a statement saying that the COVID-19 Pandemic was over. HHS would no longer waste taxpayer money responding to a non-existent epidemic, which Americans had moved past years ago.

In a statement, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said they expect to recover money 30 days after the termination notices were sent on Monday.

Officials stated that the money would be used primarily for COVID-19 vaccinations, testing, and community health workers to respond to COVID-19, as well as a 2021 program to address COVID-19 disparities in health among those at high risk and underserved, including minority populations. NBC News was the first to report on this move.

Lori Freeman said that the National Association of County & City Health Officials CEO, was announcing the end of a large portion of funding. She said, “It will end in the next 6 months.” “There is no reason to cancel it now, it’s just cruel, unusual behavior.”

More than 20 COVID-19 research grants funded by the National Institutes of Health have also been canceled. The Trump administration shut down covidtest.gov earlier this month. This was the website where Americans could get free COVID-19 tests delivered to their mail boxes.

CDC data shows that despite the COVID-19 public health emergency ending, the virus continues to kill Americans. In the last four weeks alone, 458 Americans have died on average per week from COVID-19.

HHS refused to provide any details on how the federal government plans to recover money from “impacted recipients”. HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon wrote in an email that the $11.4 billion was undisbursed money.

Freeman believes that the state health departments had already received COVID-19 funding.

She said that the funding had been authorized and appropriated by Congress. It was then handed over to the states who decide how it will be distributed locally.

Freeman said that some of the money from COVID-19 is used to tackle other issues related to public health. Freeman added that the wastewater surveillance program, which began under COVID-19, has become important in detecting other diseases.

Freeman stated that the system was used to track influenza, patterns of new diseases and emerging illnesses — and more recently the measles epidemic.

Both the first Trump administration and the Biden administration allocated billions of dollars for COVID-19 through legislation. This included a COVID-19 Relief Bill and the American Rescue Plan Act.

It’s not clear yet how the cutback in funding will affect health departments. Some were beginning to consider what this might mean for themselves. Washington State, for instance, notified health officials that over $125 million of COVID-19 funding had been terminated immediately. The actions are being “assessed” to determine their impact, the officials said.

Los Angeles County health officials have warned that they may lose over $80 million of core funding to support vaccinations and services. In an email, a departmental official said that “much of this funding is used to support disease surveillance, public-health lab services, outbreak investigation, infection control at healthcare facilities, and data transparency.”