Charlotte area vaccine programs, jobs affected by Trump administration’s health cuts
Charlotte-area health departments will feel the impacts of a new round of federal cuts aimed at the nation’s public health infrastructure.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services began cutting 20,000 full-time employees Tuesday. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it would cut $11.4 billion in COVID funding allocated for state and local health departments and nonprofits.
The cuts are parts of the Trump administration’s push, led in large part by tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, to slash federal spending and the size of the federal workforce.
Multiple local health departments say the COVID funding cuts will affect their programming and operations, including staffing and vaccination efforts. Some also expressed uncertainty about the potential local impacts of HHS staffing cuts.
The cuts come as North Carolina emerges from a winter “quad-demic,” the rapid spread of COVID, flu, RSV and walking pneumonia.
Trump administration cuts public health jobs, funding
HHS, led by controversial Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., plans to go from about 82,000 to 62,000 full-time employees, the department said in a statement last week. That includes a 10,000-person “reduction in workforce” and employees taking buyouts or early retirement. HHS will also “consolidate” from 28 divisions to 15, according to the department’s announcement.
The department says the cuts will “save taxpayers $1.8 billion per year.”
HHS spokespersons did not respond to an Observer question about how many, if any, Charlotte-area jobs will be affected. Some HHS employees waited in line for more than an hour Tuesday outside the department’s Washington, D.C., office to find out their fate, the Associated Press reported.
The CDC also announced last week it would pull back $11.4 billion in funds allocated to local health departments and other organizations in response to the COVID pandemic for vaccination efforts, testing, community health workers and programs to address health disparities.
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services told the Raleigh News & Observer those cuts will mean more than 80 job losses and at least $100 million in funding cuts for the agency.
North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson is among officials from 23 states who filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration Tuesday over the COVID funding cuts. The suit claims the cuts “violate federal law, jeopardize public health, and will have devastating consequences for communities nationwide.”
Will Trump cuts affect Charlotte-area health departments?
Among the affected health departments is Mecklenburg County Public Health, which is losing a COVID health disparities grant and funding from a COVID vaccination program. The money supported “several staff positions” and COVID vaccine outreach and education, Public Health spokesman Myles Bell told the Observer.
“Given the short notice, we do not have a plan for next steps yet and do not know the immediate impact on staffing and services,” he said in a statement.
The end of the CDC’s Community Health Worker program “directly impacted” three staff positions at the Cabarrus Health Alliance, Cabarrus County’s public health authority.
“While this program was set to conclude later this year, the decision has expedited its closure,” spokeswoman April Sloop said. The alliance also lost funding for vaccination efforts, Sloop added, though the agency had already spent “all but $4,000” of its allocation.
Iredell County “has been minimally impacted” by the end of COVID funding, spokeswoman Sierra Ashworth said. But, she added, the county anticipates more cuts may come that “have a broader impact on local public health operations.”
It’s “too soon to know the exact impact of the federal DHHS cuts” on Gaston County, spokesman Adam Gaub said. But COVID funding losses will affect the health department’s vaccine outreach efforts.
Gaston County Public Health will still be able to vaccinate people who need it, Gaub said.
The Lincoln County Health Department has so far avoided effects because the county spent all the funding it received before it was cut off, spokeswoman Vanessa Leon said.
And Union County reports the cuts will “have no significant impact on our programs and operations,” Union County Public Health Director Traci Colley said.
This story was originally published April 1, 2025 at 2:08 PM.
