#Trump’s proposal slashes the #NIH #budget to $27B from ~$48B. The budget doc delivers a duplicitous rebuke to NIH, saying: “NIH has broken the trust of the American people w/wasteful spending, misleading information, risky research & the promotion of dangerous ideologies that undermine public health.” [written from Bizarro World]

The budget purports to refocus the #CDC on #infectious #diseases, but slashes funding for viral #hepatitis, #HIV & #STDs, lumping them into a single program at $300M.

"The [Division of #Viral #Hepatitis] Laboratory Branch had the highest degree of viral hepatitis expertise of any #PublicHealth laboratory in the world," wrote Scott Becker, the assn's CEO. "Their loss eliminated critical national testing services that do not exist anywhere else within the #HHS agencies."

As of April 16, the assn had not received a response from #RFKJr, Becker said.

2 days after the lab's scientists received their reduction in force emails, #HHS Secy #RFKJr acknowledged that ~⅕ of the cuts at HHS were made *unintentionally* & some people would be offered their jobs back.
On April 4, the Assn of #PublicHealth Laboratories sent a letter to RFKJr urging HHS to reinstate all personnel in the Division of #Viral #Hepatitis & at the Division of #STD Prevention, another lab at the #CDC that was shuttered.

…Although 4 new samples have already arrived at the lab & 3 more were waiting in #Florida to be sent, none have been tested by the #CDC. Epidemiologists still at the CDC have been trying to find another place that can do the tests but have been unsuccessful….

…w/o the CDC's scientists to test the genetic material, it will be harder for epidemiologists to confirm whether people w/ #hepatitis C were infected in the same doctor's office or somewhere else where the #virus could still be spreading….

The email said their duties were "identified as either unnecessary or virtually identical to duties being performed elsewhere in the agency." But the #genetic #tracing that the #CDC's lab performs is not conducted by any lab in the #UnitedStates or the #world….

While it remains shuttered, ongoing investigations of current #hepatitis #outbreaks have been stalled, not just in #Florida, but also in #Oregon, #Pennsylvania, #Massachusetts, #NewMexico, #Wisconsin, #WestVirginia & #Georgia….

But on April 1, the #outbreak investigation was brought to a halt. All 27 of the lab's scientists received an email from the #HHS informing them that they were losing their #jobs. Like thousands of other employees who received similar emails that day, the scientists were told they would be placed on administrative leave until June 2, after which they would no longer work for the #CDC.

The scientists at the lab knew what they were doing. Quickly, they analyzed the blood from #Florida using their custom software & found that 9 cases were genetically linked to the same pain clinic, where it was later discovered that a doctor was improperly reusing injection vials. By March, ofcls in FL had restricted the doctor's #medical license to limit the spread of the #virus & packaged new patient samples to send to the #CDC for testing…

The #hepatitis C #virus, which is spread through contact w/infected blood & can lead to #deadly liver #cancer, is notoriously hard to identify. But if anyone could understand what was #happening in FL, it would be the Division of #ViralHepatitis in the #CDC's HQ.
Using samples from the lab's collection of nearly 1M frozen specimens, scientists helped make the initial discovery of the #HepatitisC virus in the 1980s. In 2020, that #research was awarded the #NobelPrize in #Medicine.
#Trump #science

the head of the #FDA’s Office of New #Drugs, the head of the National Institute of #Allergy & #InfectiousDiseases [#NIAID], the director of the #CDC’s National Center for #HIV, Viral #Hepatitis, #STD, & #TB Prevention, the head of the CDC’s Center for Forecasting & #Outbreak Analytics,