Disease Threats Grow as Trump Health Program Cuts Continue

As beachgoers head to the water for the busy July Fourth weekend, public health officials say some coastal areas may carry hidden risks. Researchers this spring found flesh-eating bacteria in water at several locations on Long Island in New York, and town officials in the Hamptons posted an alert about the findings. In Florida, eight people have been infected this year, and Mississippi health officials urged precautions in June.

The bacteria, Vibrio vulnificus, can enter open wounds and cause tissue death and systemic sepsis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about 1 in 5 people infected die, sometimes within a day or two of becoming ill. The agency also says many patients become seriously ill and may need intensive care or limb amputation. The risk is not limited to water exposure, either. The bacterium can also sicken or kill people who eat contaminated seafood, including raw oysters.

Researchers say the danger from these kinds of pathogens is growing partly because climate change is expanding where some microbes can spread. But they also warn that another force is making the situation worse: major cuts to programs and agencies that prevent, track and respond to disease threats. Under the Trump administration, investments in public health work have been reduced even as new and old infectious hazards have emerged.

One example is screwworm, a parasitic blowfly whose larvae can enter open wounds and devour tissue in people and animals. The parasite reappeared in the U.S. in June after long being eliminated. According to a report from the USDA’s Office of Inspector General, the Department of Agriculture lost 18% of its workforce in the first six months of 2025. Officials say the agency’s reduced inspection service is helping lead the response to the parasite. More than a dozen animals have been infected, and agriculture officials say an expanding outbreak could damage the cattle industry.

The administration also froze foreign aid, disrupting international malaria prevention efforts. New federal guidance in May warned that the U.S. is vulnerable to malaria returning. The CDC says the disease was eradicated from the United States in 1951, but mosquitoes capable of spreading it are found across most of the country. In 2023, 10 people in Arkansas, Florida, Maryland and Texas were infected locally. The CDC’s updated guidance says the country remains susceptible to malaria reintroduction, and it warned that most U.S. residents lack protective immunity, leaving them at risk of severe illness and death if infected.

The Trump administration also moved against the ocean monitoring system that researchers use to track conditions affecting Vibrio. Hundreds of deep-sea instruments that measure ocean waters were initially slated for removal, though the administration later reversed that plan after bipartisan opposition in Congress. Even so, researchers say surveillance has still been reduced. Vibrio can multiply rapidly when water temperatures and salinity rise, and scientists have used the data from those instruments to study where the bacteria may flourish.

Christopher Gobler, a professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University in New York, said tracking coastal temperatures is important because it relates to the spread of Vibrio. He also said there are other data sources available to researchers. Still, the reduction in monitoring has raised concern among scientists who say fewer observations can make it harder to anticipate outbreaks.

The federal response to foodborne illness has also changed. Since 1995, 10 states have taken part in FoodNet, a CDC-linked program that monitors cases of foodborne illness caused by eight pathogens, including Vibrio. Last year, the Trump administration stopped requiring those states to report on all but two of the pathogens, meaning states no longer have to send those cases to the CDC. Federal officials say the agency still monitors these pathogens through other national surveillance systems and can continue to watch disease trends and outbreaks.

Former health leaders say the cumulative effect of the cuts is becoming harder to ignore. Tom Frieden, a former CDC director who now leads Resolve to Save Lives, said the government is weakening the defenses needed to protect against microbial threats. In his view, the changes are doing the opposite of protection. He is among those arguing that the reduction in funding, staffing and expertise is leaving the country more exposed just as more infectious threats appear.

The administration defends its approach as a way to cut wasteful spending. Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Emily Hilliard said the department is carrying out major public health reforms focused on prevention, accountability, scientific transparency and better health outcomes. She said the department is putting American families at the center of public health decisions. HHS also says the CDC continues to work with domestic and international partners to reduce malaria and prevent it from reestablishing in the U.S.

But researchers and former officials say the pullback has gone beyond one agency or one disease. Early in the administration, Trump froze and reviewed global health programs. His cost-cutting effort, led by billionaire Elon Musk, also dismantled USAID. That disrupted the President’s Malaria Initiative, a George W. Bush-era program credited with saving more than 11 million lives. USAID had invested more than $9 billion in the effort since 2005, and KFF reported that 80% of USAID grants for global malaria programs were targeted for termination. The report did not include the total value of those specific grants.

The spending freeze also halted research into more effective malaria vaccines. At the same time, the administration dissolved the CDC’s Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria and reassigned staff to other divisions, interrupting work on the disease. HHS did not say how many staffers were moved. Jeanne Marrazzo, chief executive of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said the cuts have reduced both staff and expertise, and she called that expertise irreplaceable.

Screwworm prevention has also been affected. USAID cuts stripped more than $300 million from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, which works on global food security and monitors zoonotic diseases such as screwworm. More than 20,000 employees are gone from USDA under the administration’s cost-cutting efforts, according to the story, and the agency also develops and carries out agriculture policy and supports livestock producers vulnerable to the parasite. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has denied that staffing cuts played any role in the parasite’s return and blamed the Biden administration instead, saying without evidence that uncontrolled illegal migration was partly responsible. Ashish Jha, who served as White House covid response coordinator during the Biden administration, said there is no truth to the claim that immigrants without legal status brought screwworm into the U.S.

Jha also said the administration’s emphasis on chronic disease prevention is coming at the expense of infectious disease work. He criticized the approach as a bait and switch, saying it is leaving the country less protected against microbial threats. He pointed to Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization, which coordinates global responses to public health problems, as another example of the weakening of surveillance and response systems. The article ends with the broader warning that, as new threats surface and old ones return, reductions in monitoring, staffing and international cooperation could leave the U.S. more vulnerable.