Restore the $29 million stripped from the CDC's Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria, and hold this administration accountable for the public health disaster its ideological budget cuts have caused. Over 7,000 Americans have been sickened in a cyclospora outbreak, more than 100 hospitalized, and the federal response was a failure by design — not bad luck.
When Trump dismantled USAID, it wiped out the funding that paid for shared lab equipment and the specialized staff who respond to exactly this kind of outbreak. Dr. Joel Barratt's 11-person parasitic disease team was gutted to three people. He resigned in September and warned leadership beforehand. The CDC didn't alert the public until July 14, despite cases starting in mid-May — a reporting delay not seen in 15 years. Michigan's state health department beat the federal government to the announcement by two weeks.
This is what happens when you slash a quarter of the CDC's workforce to score political points. The experts are gone. The surge capacity is gone. The next outbreak won't wait for Congress to act. Restore this funding now and demand a full review of how these cuts compromised the response.
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