Governor Lamont, DPH Commissioner Juthani and DMHAS Commissioner Navarretta chime in, too, calling the cuts "devastating" and "a dark day for public health"

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) plans on clawing back about $11.4 billion in covid funding that was directed to states for testing, vaccination, community health workers and initiatives to address Covid health disparities among high-risk and underserved populations, and global Covid projects.

"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," HHS Director of Communications Andrew Nixon said in a statement, according to NBC. "HHS is prioritizing funding projects that will deliver on President Trump’s mandate to address our chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again."

The discontinued grants include about $11.4B from CDC meant to last until 2026/2027, and around $1B from S.A.M.H.S.A., the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which was scheduled to expire in 6 months.

The S.A.M.H.S.A. funds were not specifically earmarked for covid, but it was noted that the pandemic led to loneliness, anxiety and depression which triggered substance abuse issues and a surge in overdose deaths.

Attorney General William Tong promised to fight the canceled funding to states, which includes more than $150 million to Connecticut, while gaslighting his constituents and spreading fear about measles and bird flu.

“This is a reckless escalation of Donald Trump’s lawless war on American families and workers. We are coordinating with states across the country and will respond in court,” said Attorney General Tong. “He is robbing our nation of more than $12 billion to fight infectious disease, combat the opioid and addiction crisis, and support mental health when we’ve got measles and bird flu spreading, families wrecked by opioids and an unchecked surge of deadly fentanyl, and children in mental health crises lined up in emergency departments because we don’t have the services we need to support them."

"And where is all our money going? The stock market is tanking, basic family costs are surging, and people are losing their jobs across the country. The President seems bound and determined to make us sick, broke, and to put us in danger. He wants to defund healthcare, defund our savings, our retirement and Social Security, and he wants to defund the police. He just doesn’t care,” said Tong.

"This is the latest lawless effort by Trump to unilaterally rescind Congressionally-authorized funding to states. If he is successful, Trump will be responsible for countless Connecticut workers losing their jobs, not to mention the harm that thousands of Connecticut families will suffer. The impact of these cuts will be immediate and far reaching," the statement said.

Lamont claimed the money went toward "a wide range of essential public health, mental health, and addiction services, such as disease outbreak surveillance, newborn screenings, childhood immunizations, and testing for viruses and other pathogens."

“These abrupt and unexpected cuts to our health system are going to have a devastating impact on our ability to fight disease, protect the health of newborns, provide mental health and addiction treatment services, and keep people safe,” Governor Lamont said. “We should be making it easier and cheaper for people to access critical health care, including mental health services. I am urging the Trump administration to recognize that these cuts go beyond what is reasonable and reverse this rash and impulsive decision. I will do everything I can to support the health and safety of the residents of Connecticut.”

On Wednesday, dozens of projects and all work being done by vendors and consultants funded by these grants were ordered to stop. Grants are also being eliminated that fund immunization activities and address health disparities. DPH is also being forced to cancel 48 contracts with local health departments and other providers for immunization services.

“This is a dark day for public health,” DPH Commissioner Manisha Juthani, M.D., said. “These grants fund many of our core public health functions. While we are still assessing the impact to our agency, we know that these cuts will severely hamper our ability to respond to any future infectious disease outbreaks, childhood immunization programs that we fund must now end, and critical work we have done to strengthen and increase our capacity to protect the public health of Connecticut’s residents must stop. COVID-19 may have been the catalyst for these grants but, as Congress intended, these funds were being used to modernize our systems, strengthen our workforce, educate the public, protect our children all to prevent or mitigate the damage to human lives caused by future disease outbreaks. I hope that the administration will reconsider its decision once they realize the full scope of the critical work funded by these grants.”

DMHAS, which oversees Connecticut’s behavioral health needs in the areas of mental health treatment and substance abuse prevention and treatment, cautions that the cuts could impact services related to housing and employment supports, regional suicide advisory boards, harm reduction, perinatal screening, early-stage treatments, and increased access to medication assisted treatment.

“Let there be no doubt that this unanticipated and sudden cessation of these block grants will be immediately and consequentially disruptive to the behavioral health system in Connecticut,” DMHAS Commissioner Nancy Navarretta said. “These resources were deployed by DMHAS in a contemplative and rigorous fashion to assist providers in handling the COVID-19 pandemic and its latent impacts based on a timeline that was clearly established and articulated by Congress and the United States Treasury. Now, our clients and providers are put at risk due to an unwarranted and uninformed decision. The services at risk include housing and employment supports, regional suicide advisory boards, harm reduction, perinatal screening, early-stage treatments, and increased access to medication assisted treatment. These are lifesaving and life-changing services for our state’s residents who are asking for help at a vulnerable time in their life – all of which was exacerbated by the pandemic. In the hours and days ahead, there will be uncertainty in the system, and we will be working closely with our providers and clients to ensure they know we continue to seek solutions to continue these programs for as long as possible.”

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