Teams that work to offer entry to vaccines, particularly for Black Georgians and others in underserved communities, are amongst these affected because the state Division of Public Well being absorbs a $334.2 million loss from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.
The abrupt cancellation of funds introduced March 25 despatched DPH leaders scrambling to know the impression and inform contractors, together with many group organizations, to cease work instantly, based on emails Healthbeat obtained below open data legal guidelines.
“I personally referred to as a number of of those recipients myself, as these funds weren’t slated to finish till late 2026,” Georgia Public Well being Commissioner Kathleen Toomey wrote March 28 to Amy Doehrman and Russell Crutchfield, the deputy and chief working officers, respectively, within the governor’s workplace.
Cuts to CDC Covid-era funding totaled practically $12 billion nationwide. “These grants and cooperative agreements have been issued for a restricted objective: to ameliorate the results of the pandemic. Now that the pandemic is over, [they] are not crucial as their restricted objective has run,” said a federal discover to grant awardees.
A gaggle of Democratic-led states have filed a lawsuit difficult the cuts, prompting a federal choose to problem a brief restraining order blocking the reductions. However the order doesn’t apply to Georgia, which isn’t among the many states that sued.
DPH has shared few particulars about how the cuts will impression its work and didn’t reply to a number of requests for extra info. Leaders on the Cobb and Douglas Public Well being mentioned in March that they’d lose about $467,000. State officers have mentioned the company’s core providers will proceed.
Lots of the affected group teams couldn’t be reached or declined to remark.
Right here’s what we all know.
Epidemiology lab capability funding minimize
State epidemiologist Dr. Cherie Drenzek notified Toomey and DPH company leaders at 10:10 a.m. on March 25 that she had acquired a discover terminating CDC “epidemiology laboratory capability” Covid funding. The funding was a Covid complement to common CDC lab funding to help state public well being laboratory capability.
Later that day, Drenzek wrote to senior leaders that just one grant had been impacted: “‘Solely’ however HUGE.” The grant apparently had a earlier finish date of July 31, 2026. DPH didn’t reply to requests for added details about how the state’s lab providers could be impacted.
By that night, the company had began sending out termination notices to non permanent staff “because of lack of funding.” The company laid off 170 non permanent contact tracers, based on DPH spokesperson Nancy Nydam.
One other 13 staff have been laid off, together with 4 who labored in epidemiology, 4 who labored on lab providers, and three who labored on emergency preparedness, Nydam mentioned.
Sean Penn’s CORE loses $3.3 million for vaccine work
The Neighborhood Organized Reduction Effort, based by actor Sean Penn, misplaced practically $3.3 million of Vaccines for Youngsters Covid funding, based on a preliminary spreadsheet Healthbeat obtained through an open data request.
Penn co-founded CORE in 2010 in response to an earthquake in Haiti. CORE now payments itself as a “international humanitarian group.” It began working in Georgia through the Covid-19 pandemic and has since continued to assist underserved communities get entry to vaccines, based on its web site.
CORE hosted 90 cellular vaccination occasions and administered 385 vaccines in March 2025 at a girls’s shelter, a flea market in Pendergrass, Ga., a group bathe and hygiene occasion in Clayton County, and others, based on a report submitted to DPH final month. Since March 2021, CORE has administered greater than 149,000 Covid vaccines in Georgia.
“Whereas DPH wish to present enough discover, we should ask CORE to stop all actions efficient tomorrow,” DPH Deputy Commissioner Chris Rustin wrote in a March 25 e mail to Sam Archbold, CORE’s Georgia space director.
The lack of CDC funds comes after CORE in February misplaced about $5 million of a $12 million contract with DPH to coordinate and handle Covid and flu vaccine occasions and outreach in high-risk and underserved communities, based on paperwork.
Atlanta nonprofit loses about $500,000 for vaccine fairness work
Atlanta nonprofit BLKHLTH Inc. misplaced about half one million {dollars} in federal funding, co-founder Kadijah Ameen mentioned.
The group acquired discover of the cuts in late March, ensuing within the cancellation of 10 upcoming occasions below a federal grant centered on Covid vaccine fairness, Ameen mentioned. BLKHLTH had deliberate to make use of info gleaned from listening periods throughout the state to form vaccine outreach efforts.
“We’re utilizing information from the listening periods to kind our community-based vaccine clinics….We needed to halt that programming,” Ameen mentioned. “It was disruptive.”
Issues over whether or not details about Covid and vaccines may very well be faraway from the CDC web site below orders from the Trump administration added urgency to BLKHLTH’s work, Ameen mentioned.
“We don’t know the way lengthy Covid-19 data goes to be on the CDC web site, and so we need to make it possible for of us had an area to entry info that was culturally responsive,” Ameen mentioned. The group’s listening periods had revealed that Black Georgians need dependable vaccine info that may assist “minimize via … disinformation.”
The hit to her group’s finances was massive, Ameen mentioned. “We’re a small non-profit and this was a million-dollar reimbursable grant, in order that was a big share of our anticipated finances for the yr.”
The group has rearranged funding and plans to search out various sources to proceed its vaccine work, Ameen mentioned.
Heart for Black Ladies’s Wellness loses funds
The information prompted swift dismay from Jamea Dorsey, president and CEO of the Atlanta nonprofit Heart for Black Ladies’s Wellness, which misplaced about $438,000 within the cuts, based on the preliminary spreadsheet.
“We’re saddened and upset, particularly because of the truth that we’re receiving this communications after our Covid outreach occasion and listening session, which occurred on 3/25, and we now have one other occasion scheduled for tomorrow,” Dorsey wrote in a March 26 e mail to Jamillia Valentine, director of workplace of procurement and contracting providers at DPH.
The group was notified March 26 that its contract had ended at midnight two days earlier than.
“Will we not be compensated for this work? These bills have been dedicated and allotted prior to three/24,” Dorsey wrote. “Please advise, as it will trigger hardship for our group.”
“We’re additionally deeply involved concerning the lack of belief in the neighborhood,” Dorsey added.
Dorsey didn’t reply to a request for remark. The middle gives well being care providers and maternal and postpartum help. It had about $3.3 million in income in 2023, based on its tax paperwork.
Crimson Covid testing kiosks eliminated
Crimson self-serve Covid testing kiosks DPH arrange through the pandemic are being eliminated. They have been offered below a contract with Longview Worldwide Expertise Providers, based on the spreadsheet of preliminary cuts.
The kiosks have been programmed to deactivate on March 31, with Longview set to choose them up, based on an e mail from Rustin to district well being administrators.
“DPH has already paid for the take a look at kits within the machines, so any expense between 3/24 and three/31 will likely be absorbed by LTS.”
Rebecca Grapevine is a reporter overlaying public well being in Atlanta for Healthbeat. Contact Rebecca at rgrapevine@healthbeat.org. Healthbeat is a nonprofit newsroom overlaying public well being revealed by Civic Information Firm and KFF Well being Information. Join their newsletters right here.
