Chicago Department of Public Health loses COVID-related grants as part of $125M federal funding rescission
The Chicago Department of Public Health announced on Friday that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has cut some of its COVID-related grants this week.
This comes as the federal government cut $11.4 billion in COVID-related grants, which were partly used for testing, virus research, and community health jobs.
On Monday, $125 million in funding for Illinois services was cut. According to the Chicago Department of Public Health, the cuts affect 22 contracts and over 100 staff positions.
"The COVID-19 pandemic shined a spotlight on how woefully underfunded public health was, and these vital federal funds helped CDPH and other public health agencies around the nation to be better equipped to manage complex health challenges that impact Chicagoans," CDPH Commissioner Dr. Olusimbo Ige said.
The nonprofit Haymarket Center, Chicago's largest treatment center for people with substance use disorders and mental health needs, said they won't be able to provide necessary services without the funding that was rescinded by the Trump administration.
"This is actually impacting the state's most vulnerable people," said Haymarket Center president and CEO Dr. Dan Lustig.
Haymarket sees about 12,000 patients a year. Lustig said about 600 of those are about to be majorly impacted.
"Most recently we found that our recovery program was ending, effective immediately," he said.
President Trump announced this week that $11.4 billion in COVID-19-related funds for state and local health departments was being cut immediately — money that was largely used for COVID-19 testing, virus research and community health jobs.
Lustig said they had previously expected to lose federal COVID-19 funds in June. Now they are scrambling to figure out how to make up the $180,000 dollars they will lose right away.
"We don't have other funding streams, necessarily, that we can switch on a dime," he said.
In a statement to CBS News, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said, "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."
But for Lustig and those at the local level, the cuts came too quick.
"When you start dealing and touching with the cutting of public health programs, you are deciding who lives and who dies," Lustig said.
Mayor Brandon Johnson said he is concerned about the move as it will impact those in vulnerable communities.
"As we learned through the COVID-19 pandemic, it is essential for us to invest in preventative measures and monitoring to protect our communities from future outbreaks. This funding cut is counterproductive to our mission of keeping our communities safe and healthy. I strongly urge the federal government to restore this critical investment in our local health departments and recommit to protecting our residents," he said.
The cut services were used to combat COVID-19, measles, and H5N1 disease while preventing another pandemic like the one seen in 2020.
"If allowed to stand, this funding cut will set back critical upgrades to our public health labs, the technology used to track infectious diseases like H5N1 avian flu and measles, vaccination efforts, and our ongoing work to better prepare for the next public health emergency," IDPH Director Dr. Sameer Vohra said.
Without the funding, CDPH says people will see fewer immunization clinics and vaccination events, fewer opportunities to monitor and respond to infectious diseases, and fewer supplies to prevent the spread of diseases.
The cuts come amid the Trump administration's plans to shrink the Health and Human Services workforce as part of a departmental restructuring.
