The Trump administration's proposed cuts to CDC funding, laid out in the budget proposal released Tuesday, is "unsafe at any level of enactment," according to Tom Frieden, MD, the former director of the CDC.
President Trump's budget would take $1.2 billion from the CDC's coffers, resulting in the lowest CDC budget in more than two decades, Dr. Frieden detailed in a Tuesday tweet. He said the budget "risks Americans' health and safety."
Some of the main cuts Dr. Frieden took issue with include:
- More than $100 million in cuts to emergency preparedness, "putting Americans at risk from new and emerging diseases."
- Cuts of $186 million to HIV, sexually transmitted disease and tuberculosis prevention programs
- Elimination of prion disease funding, "risking losing track of safety of American beef."
- Elimination of colon cancer and skin cancer prevention programs
- An "assault on science" involving the elimination of some academic research centers and less money to support CDC labs and scientists
Dr. Frieden led the CDC from 2009 until he resigned Jan. 20. See the full tweet below.
Admin proposal for CDC budget: risks Americans' health and safety: pic.twitter.com/jAVbeGyUOG
— Dr. Tom Frieden (@DrFrieden) May 23, 2017
Read more about President Trump's budget's effects on healthcare here.