Expiration Of CDC Funding To Assist With Disease Surveillance, Detection In Developing Countries Puts U.S. At Risk, Experts Say
The Hill: CDC to cut global disease prevention efforts by 80 percent
“…Government officials told the [Washington] Post that staffers abroad began receiving instructions about two weeks ago to start downsizing activities aimed at preventing epidemics … The funding for those programs had originated from a one-time emergency funding package passed by Congress in response to the 2014 Ebola epidemic, and is expected to run out in the fall of 2019…” (Thomsen, 2/2).
The Atlantic: The CDC Is About to Fall Off a Funding Cliff
“…In December 2014, Congress appropriated $5.4 billion to fight the historic Ebola epidemic that was raging in West Africa … [A]round $1 billion was allocated to help developing countries improve their ability to detect and respond to infectious diseases … Two weeks ago, Betsy McKay at the Wall Street Journal reported that the CDC, with no firm promise of future funding, is indeed preparing to downsize its work in 39 countries … All of this is but a symptom of a greater malady: our inability to learn from the past. Time and again, diseases flare up, governments throw money at the problem, the crisis recedes, and funding dries up…” (Yong, 2/2).
CNN: Cuts to CDC epidemic programs will endanger Americans, former chief says
“The former chief of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the decision … could pose a grave danger to the United States because it ‘would significantly increase the chance an epidemic will spread without our knowledge and endanger lives in our country and around the world’…” (Drash, 2/5).
The KFF Daily Global Health Policy Report summarized news and information on global health policy from hundreds of sources, from May 2009 through December 2020. All summaries are archived and available via search.