The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the latest federal agency to announce widespread cuts under the Trump administration.
HHS announced Thursday 10,000 job cuts and a major restructuring, all in response to recommendations by President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency. It comes just days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced it would halt more than $10 billion in federal health grants that go to universities and state public health departments.
University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is one of many research schools taking a major hit.
For years, UCSF has been a shining example of cutting-edge medical and infectious disease research. During COVID-19, many of the experts at UCSF led the way with strategies and advice to deal with the pandemic. But over the last week, researchers, teachers and staff have been on edge.
"The degree of panic is definitely there," UCSF's Dr. Monica Gandhi said. "But it seems more concentrated in infectious disease and HIV, only because we serve populations that use words that this administration is saying don't exist, which of course they do exist. Transgender people exist. Sexual minorities and gay men exist."
Gandhi said without the millions of dollars in federal grants there will likely be job cuts. That comes on top of a hiring freeze that's already been ordered across the entire University of California system.
Public health experts also raised concerns about the announcement of job cuts at the CDC and a clawback of COVID-19 money that was sent to states.
This week, the CDC confirmed to NBC News that it is taking back $11.4 billion that had been allotted to states. It's not yet clear how much of that is being taken back from the California Department of Public Health.
In a statement, Dr. Erica Pan, the director of the state's public health department, said that money is already being used to monitor and treat diseases beyond COVID-19, writing, in part, "This funding supports the public health work and data systems improved during the pandemic that helped California fill gaps in its existing public health infrastructure."
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Pan said they're trying to figure out the impact this will all have on California.
Public health officials on the ground in San Francisco are concerned about how CDC job cuts and infectious disease funding cuts will affect their ability to deal with any potential outbreaks.
"What gets measured gets managed, and we all really rely on the CDC as our source of truth, whether that's infectious disease doctors like myself or other primary care doctors," UCSF's Dr. Ayesha Appa said.
NBC Bay Area reached out to UCSF administration for more information about the impact of potential federal funding cuts but did not immediately hear back.
