The Hill: 6 devastating effects of cutting CDC funding
Bill Frist, heart and lung transplant surgeon and former Republican U.S. Senate majority leader from Tennessee, and Tom Frieden, former director of the CDC

“…[T]he fiscal year 2018 federal budget for CDC needs to protect the agency so it can protect Americans. The administration’s proposed budget would slash CDC spending …, devastating life-saving programs and setting back more than a decade of progress. Here are just a half-dozen examples from the scores of proposed cuts: 1. Weakening our capacity to prevent or promptly detect epidemics at home and globally … 2. Eliminating research centers … 3. Eliminating CDC’s programs to prevent colon and skin cancer … 4. Cutting immunization programs would result in more childhood illness … 5. Cutting tobacco control and other programs that protect Americans against the leading causes of death: cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and stroke … 6. Dismantling HIV prevention programs in the U.S. and globally. … As budget negotiators face hard decisions, they should keep this essential reality in mind: behind every CDC budget line, there are Americans who depend on the agency’s incredible expertise and its commitment to protecting lives. There is too much at stake to fail to fully support the CDC, the first line of health defense for us all” (7/13).