Trump Admin Pulls Vaccine Funding, Forcing Minneapolis To Halt Clinics

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — The Trump administration has rescinded $11.4 billion in COVID-19-related funding for state and local public health departments and health organizations nationwide, local officials learned Wednesday.

While the full ramifications are still unfolding, the Minneapolis Health Department announced it must immediately shut down its free vaccination clinics and halt all immunization outreach.

The local impact includes canceling five free vaccine clinics scheduled for April and halting partnerships with providers like M Health Fairview, Odam Medical Clinic, and Neighborhood HealthSource, city officials said.

The funding doesn’t just affect COVID-19; it halts access to routine immunizations like polio, MMR (measles, mumps, rubella), and other childhood vaccines.

As of September 2024, only 70 percent of Minneapolis's 6-year-olds were up to date on their childhood immunization series, according to city data.

The cuts also disrupt efforts to update school immunization records and educate the public about vaccines, officials said.

"The impact on our community is substantial. We are canceling five free vaccine clinics scheduled for April, and the future of our vaccine services in underserved communities is uncertain," said Commissioner Damōn Chaplin, Minneapolis Health Department, in a statement.

"Decisions at the federal level threaten public health now and in the future."

In 2024, the department held 87 community vaccine clinics, administering more than 2,000 shots.

It also ran 21 childhood vaccination clinics, serving over 500 patients. That work is now in jeopardy, local officials said.

Patch has reached out to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for comment.

Nationwide impact

The federal grants to Minnesota and other states were used to fund things as infectious disease tracking, immunization clinics, mental health services, addiction treatment, and other emerging health needs.

State health departments began receiving notices Monday that funds allocated during the COVID-19 pandemic would stop immediately, according to the story first reported by NBC News. The action cancels an $11.4 billion grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and around $1 billion from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

“No additional activities can be conducted, and no additional costs may be incurred, as it relates to these funds,” the notices said.

The Minnesota Department of Health said that "the federal government has unilaterally terminated approximately $226 million in grants."

"Abrupt terminations of grants and contracts is unprecedented and will impact our work and that of our partners," MDH added.

"Every dollar rescinded had been thoroughly reviewed and approved for its intended purpose by the federal government. In the past we could count on the federal government to uphold its commitments and obligations. When changes are necessary, the federal government typically gives sufficient notice to plan and pursue other sources of funding to ensure that the work to protect the health of Minnesotans continues uninterrupted and does not put our residents at risk. It will take time to figure out all of the impacts of this action, but these cuts are a tremendous loss."

HHS Cuts 10,000 Workers

The cuts to states were a prelude to sweeping changes to the Department of Human Services. On Thursday, the Trump administration said about 10,000 HHS employees would be laid off under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s planned agency reorganization, a move which the administration said will save taxpayers $1.8 billion per year.

HHS oversees 13 agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug and Administration, and the National Institutes of Health.

Kennedy said the 28 divisions within the 13 agencies overseen by HHS will be consolidated into 15 to eliminate duplications of work.

“We will eliminate an entire alphabet soup of departments, while preserving their core functions by merging them into a new organization called the Administration for Healthy America or AHA,” Kennedy wrote on X.

About 2,400 CDC employees will be cut. Divisions that will be eliminated include those focused on global health, domestic HIV prevention, and prevention from injury, such as gun violence, NBC News reported.

When combined with HHS’ other efforts, the restructuring results in a total downsizing from 82,000 to 62,000 full-time employees, according to a news release announcing the cuts.

As part of the makeover, Kennedy plans to create a new division, the Administration for a Healthy America, which will be known by the acronym AHA, the news release said.

The cuts are in addition to the 10,000 people who took buyout offers and left on their own after President Donald Trump took office.

Those cuts are on top of what is expected to be a wave of public health staff layoffs across the country as federal grant funding is cut off.

“The reality is that, when we take funding away from public health systems, the systems just do not have the capacity, because they’re chronically underfunded over the decades,” said Dr. Umair Shah, who served as Washington State’s health secretary until January, told The New York Times.