Trump Is Using the Government Shutdown to Wreck Public Health

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  Published in Health and Fitness on Tuesday, October 21st 2025 at 15:15 GMT by Truthout

The Trump administration’s most recent government shutdown—initiated over a dispute about border wall funding—has taken a toll far beyond the immediate budgetary crunch, according to a Truth Out analysis that traces how the shutdown is being used to dismantle public health infrastructure. The article, published in November 2023, argues that the administration has deliberately exploited the shutdown to weaken the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other federal health agencies, thereby eroding the nation’s capacity to respond to COVID‑19, other infectious diseases, and future public‑health emergencies.

At the heart of the piece is the observation that the shutdown began on November 17, 2023, when the U.S. Congress failed to pass a spending bill that would have funded federal agencies through December 23. The article notes that the Trump administration has long insisted on a $5.7 billion border‑wall package as a condition of continued funding, and the resulting impasse has forced federal employees—including those at the CDC—to be furloughed or work without pay. Because the CDC’s budget request for 2024 already fell short of the agency’s needs, the shutdown compounds the agency’s chronic under‑funding and threatens to halt critical surveillance, outbreak response, and vaccine research.

Truth Out cites data from the CDC’s own budget requests, which show that the agency had requested $10 billion for 2024, a 30 % increase over the 2022 allocation. The article links directly to the CDC’s “Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2024” (PDF) and summarizes that the request includes $2.5 billion for laboratory testing, $1.2 billion for disease surveillance, and $800 million for workforce development. The shutdown effectively freezes those programs, the article argues, and has already caused delays in the rollout of updated flu vaccines and in the monitoring of emerging variants of SARS‑CoV‑2.

In addition to the immediate staffing and funding issues, the article highlights how Trump’s rhetoric during the shutdown has further undermined public trust. In a November 21 televised address, President Trump suggested that the federal response to COVID‑19 was a “political stunt” and urged citizens to “treat it as if it were a hoax.” The piece connects this statement to a broader pattern of misinformation that has eroded compliance with public‑health guidelines, citing a Truth Out fact‑check that found Trump had repeatedly made false claims about the efficacy of masks and vaccines.

The article also links to a prior Truth Out feature on the 2019–2020 shutdown, which contextualizes how the current crisis is part of a continuing trend. In that earlier coverage, Truth Out reported that the shutdown had already cost the CDC over $200 million in lost research and had delayed several vaccine‑development projects. By referencing that piece, the November 2023 article reinforces the argument that the current shutdown is not an isolated event but a deliberate tactic to systematically de‑fund public‑health agencies.

A notable segment of the article discusses the ripple effects on the federal health workforce. Because furloughed employees often must re‑apply for jobs or wait for re‑employment, the article points out that many health‑care workers—especially those in rural hospitals—have lost their positions. This has exacerbated shortages in medical staff during a period when COVID‑19 cases are surging in several states. The piece cites a Truth Out interview with a former CDC epidemiologist who said that the shutdown “created an atmosphere of uncertainty that made it difficult to recruit and retain talent.”

The article also examines how the shutdown has disrupted data sharing between federal agencies and state governments. In a linked Truth Out report on the “Data Gaps Created by the Shutdown,” the author explains that without timely CDC data, state health departments have struggled to coordinate vaccine distribution and to track the spread of disease. The article warns that these data gaps could delay the detection of future outbreaks, potentially allowing new pathogens to spread unchecked.

Finally, the Truth Out piece argues that the shutdown is a part of a broader strategy to shift power from federal agencies to private corporations. By reducing federal oversight, Trump’s administration encourages the privatization of vaccine distribution and diagnostics, a move that the article sees as potentially dangerous given the lack of standardized regulations in the private sector. The article concludes that unless Congress and the administration reverse the shutdown and restore funding to the CDC and other health agencies, the United States risks losing its preparedness for the next public‑health crisis.