WASHINGTON — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be able to continue its immediate response to seasonal influenza in the event the government shuts down, a senior administration official said Friday night on a call with reporters.
“CDC will specifically be continuing their ongoing influenza surveillance,” the official said. “They’ll be collecting data reported by states, hospitals, [and] others and they’ll be reporting that critical information needed for state and local health authorities.”
Those remarks stand in direct contrast to the fiscal year 2018 contingency plan posted by the Department of Health and Human Services Friday morning, which specifically lists the agency’s seasonal flu work as one of the activities that will not continue in the case of a shutdown.
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You mean we will have to depend on the State, County and municipal disease control centers that also soak up tax dollars to do their job?