Summarize this content to 100 words A version of this essay first appeared in Jess Steier’s newsletter, “Unbiased Science.”
Well, it happened. My colleagues and I tried to dodge it, but we finally got DOGE’d. On Tuesday, the termination letter arrived from the National Association of County & City Health Officials (NACCHO) for a project we’ve poured our hearts into for several months. Eleven billion dollars that were earmarked and appropriated to stop outbreaks and strengthen public health have simply evaporated into thin air. Poof. Vamoose.
A tiny portion of those funds went to my project. It wasn’t glamorous, but it was vital: developing educational materials for local health departments that don’t have the infrastructure to create their own campaigns or infographics. We were creating gamified training modules to help them effectively communicate about preventative health, developing customizable infographics, and creating communication strategy guides. Our project was designed to help local departments connect those hardest to reach with evidence-based information in a digital world that moves faster than science itself.
Local departments of health are the backbone of our entire public health infrastructure. They know their communities better than any state or federal entity ever could. They’re on the ground. Grassroots. This is absolutely gutting to organizations made up of public servants in the truest sense of the word.
I’m certainly not alone in this gut punch. The team of incredible, brilliant, passionate, warm-hearted souls who worked tirelessly alongside me are all feeling it, too. Across the country, countless scientists are speaking up about similar experiences. This may seem abstract to people outside the direct line of fire — but don’t be fooled. This has a ripple effect on every single American.
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It’s almost comical that the email from NACCHO started with “Dear Sir/Madam” — they couldn’t even muster the energy to use a basic mail merge function to include our names. But of course, they couldn’t. I know our contract officer at NACCHO fought hard for our project, but this was completely out of their hands. These are broad, sweeping cuts mandated from above by HHS and DOGE, implemented with blunt knives, crippling the fabric of our health care system.
I pride myself on not being an alarmist, but the time to be alarmed is here. It is now. Entire departments slashed. Veteran public health professionals and scientists who have dedicated their entire lives to this work — jobless. Worse than jobless, they have nowhere to put their incredible skillsets that took decades to build. What a colossal, heartbreaking waste.
The notice gives us until April 4 to submit final invoices. Ten days to wrap up what we believed mattered. Ten days to say goodbye to work that aimed to strengthen our nation’s health infrastructure. Ten days to wonder what happens next for the local health departments we were supporting…
And it’s not just Covid funding. These cuts are part of a massive overhaul at HHS announced this week, with 10,000 employees being cut across health agencies nationwide. The CDC is losing 2,400 employees, while the NIH is cancelling hundreds of grants, including a $577 million program to develop antiviral drugs against viruses with pandemic potential. Research grants are being terminated left and right, with particular targets including Covid-19 research, climate change studies, and diversity initiatives. Health initiatives scrapped. Decades of progress threatened. The scope of these cuts is breathtaking — a systematic dismantling of our public health infrastructure when we should be building on what we’ve learned.
Local health departments were already operating on shoestring budgets, held together by dedication more than dollars. Now they’re losing even those meager resources. I can’t imagine a world without properly functioning local health departments, but we’re about to witness firsthand what happens when the foundation of our health system crumbles.
The letter ended with “Respectfully,” of all things. A final bureaucratic insult after delivering a death blow to vital work. There’s nothing respectful about gutting health funding with a form letter.
But here’s what I know: Science communication has never been more crucial. Many of us are bootstrapping, exhausted, terrified about what comes next. I’m scrappy — we all are. There are other projects in the works, ideas in the hopper. This isn’t the end. But that doesn’t make today any less crushing.
Jess Steier is a public health scientist and founder of “Unbiased Science.”
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