“Our Health is Our Wealth”

Public Health focuses on preventing disease, promoting healthy behaviors, and protecting communities before illness occurs. By addressing factors like ensuring clean air and water, expanding access to healthcare, vaccinations, and health education, public health reduces the burden on healthcare systems and improves quality of life. It also works to reduce health disparities, ensuring that everyone regardless of background has the opportunity to live a healthier, longer life.

Public Health’s success is measured by problems that don’t happen—like outbreaks prevented or lives saved, public health efforts can be undervalued or overlooked. Thus, public health programs are often in danger because they face budget cuts, shifting political priorities, workforce shortages, and public distrust. As a result, many programs struggle to maintain the resources needed to protect communities and respond effectively to emerging health challenges.

Deep cuts erode the foundations of US public health system, end progress, threaten worse to come | AP News | 31 May, 2025

Healthcare accessibility in rural communities continues to be a challenge on the national level and in Georgia as well.  Many rural hospitals are struggling to provide essential health services for their communities due to various factors which include financial losses and cuts to funding sources.  In Georgia, 20 of the state’s 71 rural hospitals have been considered at-risk for closing.  Of those 20 facilities, 10 are considered as being an immediate risk of closing. 

For many rural healthcare facilities, reductions in the types of services they provide is another challenge for many rural communities.  Many facilities that manage to stay open often shudder entire units which can provide essential services for people living in those communities.  These reductions in services mean less healthcare access to rural communities which furthers the health divide between urban and rural communities.

20 rural Georgia hospitals at risk of closure, new report says | FOX 5 Atlanta | 16 May, 2025

Rural Georgia hospital to close L&D unit, partly because of Medicaid cuts • Georgia Recorder | 17 Sept, 2025

Rural Hospital Closures Reduce Access to Emergency Care – Center for American Progress | 19 Sept, 2025

‘Medicaid Cut Me Off’: A Rural Health Center Faces New Pressures – The New York Times | 22 Oct, 2025

This may help a bit: Tennessee, Georgia both get over $205 million in federal funds for rural health | Chattanooga Times Free Press | 29 Dec, 2025

The nation’s public health infrastructure plays an essential role in helping to ensure that the nation’s health and well-being is prioritized and monitored by preventing disease, protecting communities, reducing the spread of illness, and researching new health treatments.  Federal funding cuts to our public health infrastructure –  specifically via significant budget reductions to public health agencies like CDC, NIH, and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) and state/local health departments, will weaken the nation’s public health system and emergency readiness and response.

Vaccinations are important in helping to keep people and communities healthy by preventing serious, deadly diseases from spreading.  By training the immune system to recognize and fight specific infections, vaccines prevent illnesses like measles, influenza, and hepatitis before they can spread.  High vaccination rates are helpful in creating herd immunity, which reduces disease transmission and protects vulnerable people – such as infants, the elderly, and those with weakened immune systems – who cannot be vaccinated.  In addition to saving lives, vaccines reduce healthcare costs by preventing expensive treatments, hospitalizations, and outbreaks before they happen which can strain hospitals and public health systems.  Vaccines keep schools and workplaces open, which supports social and economic stability in our communities.  Vaccines represent a cornerstone of modern medicine and public health, protecting both individuals and society from preventable illnesses and ensuring healthier, more resilient communities.

Tracking Measles in the U.S.: Latest Maps and Cases – The New York Times Measles Tracker

How do we know scientific studies are safe? Who approves them? – Science for Georgia

July 25 GSJ: How Vaccines Work: They Really Are Good and Safe – Science for Georgia

Environmental health and disease surveillance are essential for protecting Georgia communities from health threats that arise from the environment.  Monitoring air, water, soil, and food quality helps identify and prevent community exposures to pollutants, toxins, and pathogens that can cause  illness.   Disease surveillance systems track patterns of infectious and chronic diseases, allowing public health officials to detect outbreaks early, respond quickly, and prevent further spread.  Together, they help public health officials respond quickly to emerging threats  – such as contaminated drinking water, mosquito-borne illnesses, or industrial pollution – and develop policies and frameworks for keeping Georgia communities safe.  Effective environmental monitoring and prevention efforts are essential for maintaining a clean environment, reducing disease burden, and promoting community well-being

Federal funding is a vital source that many chronic disease prevention programs across the nation rely on to help Americans suffering from chronic diseases.  Financial cuts to chronic disease prevention programs will have adverse health effects on millions of people who participate in chronic disease prevention health programs.  Funding cuts for the fiscal year 2026 will eliminate the CDC’s Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.  Funds that supported chronic disease prevention programs will be eliminated or rerouted to the new Administration for Healthy America.  Many state and local health departments across the nation rely on this funding from CDC to implement chronic disease prevention programs.  For example, the National Diabetes Prevention Program would suffer huge financial losses and disrupt access to evidence-based lifestyle intervention programs that significantly reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes.

Other chronic disease programs that target nutrition, physical activity, and obesity prevention would also be affected across 41 states.

In addition, health tracking data-gathering programs and their staff have already been eliminated including programs tracking pregnancies, abortions, job-related injuries, lead poisonings, sexual violence, and youth smoking.

On Tuesday, Jan 13, 2026 a Trump administration letter wipes out addiction, mental health grants : NPR. Then on Jan 14, Trump administration rolls back $2 billion mental health, addiction grant cuts : NPR.

Federal funding cuts to mental health and substance abuse programs would have significant consequences for states and local agencies by reducing access to essential services such as counseling, treatment, crisis prevention, and community outreach. Without the help of federal funding, state and local health departments have fewer resources to operate with in providing mental health and substance abuse services.

Good news? Looks like vital mental health and addiction services are not losing $2B. For now.

But a lot already happened in 2025…

There has been a proposed restructuring of HHS for the 2026 fiscal year – where the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) will be dissolved into the new Administration for a Healthy America (AHA). Critical funding for community mental health centers, suicide prevention programs, substance use treatment initiatives and programs will be eliminated. (This has not occurred yet due to ongoing court challenges.)

SAMHSA has already lost roughly half of its staff over the last year to layoffs and resignations tied to Trump’s efforts to downsize the federal workforce. Recent data from the White House Office of Personnel Management showed that the agency now employs 547 people, down from 916 in 2024. — Politico, 14 Jan, 2026.

The proposed federal agency restructuring and federal cuts to these programs will put millions of Americans struggling with mental health and substance use disorders at risk.  The proposed budget cuts will eliminate $1 billion dollars from Programs of Regional and National Significance which supports substance use-related services for states, cities, counties, and local organizations via SAMHSA.

In addition, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has cut $88 million in grant awards for substance abuse treatment and mental health services.  As access to these services shrink, communities will experience higher rates of untreated mental health conditions and increased overdoses, these create greater strains on emergency departments and law enforcement, worsening public health and public safety outcomes.

Opioid drug overdoses and deaths remain a top public health priority as cases continue to rise in Georgia and nationally.  Public health officials have been raising public awareness on the dangers of opioid addiction and opioid overdoses in lieu of the decrease in opioid prescription accessibility.  Increases in heroin use and other synthetic drugs, like fentanyl, have skyrocketed since the early 2010s.  Georgia communities, especially in rural areas, have seen dramatic increases in overdose deaths, emergency room visits, hospitalizations, and overdose reversals.  While much progress has been made on prescription opioid usage, illicit opioid accessibility and usage remains a challenge for Georgia communities.  Synthetic opioid-related deaths accounted for more than 60% of all overdose deaths in 2023.  In 2023-2024, the opioid-related death rate decreased 24.7 % from the previous the year.  While this data is encouraging, we remain hopeful that public awareness campaigns continue to bring awareness to the opioid crisis. Through scientific research, we can understand that addiction is not a moral failure, but rather a medical disorder that impacts the functioning of the brain and behavior.

Imagine discovering a breakthrough for cancer treatment. Now imagine no one can learn about this work because the report on it contains “naughty” words like: “equal” or “diverse” or “women.”

This is now reality for countless researchers. Whose research is being stopped – research that tax payers were paying for – because the new administration deems their research to be “politically motivated.”

That means illness like cancer, Alzheimer’s, and heart disease are being made controversial. “Nearly 2,500 N.I.H. grants that have been ended or delayed,” according to the New York Times. This work stoppage endangers real scientific progress made by scientists across all fields. And it endangers our health and wellbeing.

National Institute for Health (N.I.H.) employees are also at risk, potentially facing serious consequences if they approve a grant not aligned with Trump’s agenda. The N.I.H. also faces more cuts to come, especially if studies are related to international partners or include any of those “banned” words.

These top-down, across the board cuts are serious, and while most of us are not directly impacted by a job loss, these cuts promise unstable disease management and public health safety for all. With Trump’s federal cuts to research across the nation, institutions like University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, and Emory University are threatened with unstable futures. Research is often changing, meaning it needs ongoing review and continual progress. Without sufficient funding from federal grants, these cuts not only threaten the future of current research projects, but also pose potential job losses for scientists. Jobs that fuel our innovation economy.

What can I do? Staying informed is the first step in this process. Although these stories are pervasive and anxiety-inducing, having an optimistic perspective is crucial when it comes to problem solving. Share these stories with your community, engage with scientific nonprofits in your area, remind all that science is important, and always think critically when examining any piece of information.

FROM: Here Are the Nearly 2,500 Medical Research Grants Canceled or Delayed by Trump – The New York Times