CDC to Reduce Funding for States’ Child Vaccination Programs
By Andy Miller
A June 27 email from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to state immunization managers indicates that agency funding for child vaccination programs is being cut in response to the recent debt ceiling deal reached by Congress and the Biden administration. The reduction, which the email called “a significant change to your budget,” is related to the $680 million federal immunization grant supporting childhood vaccination programs. The email added, “There will be no easy solution for this. We know that this change will require some tough decisions.” The budget cut follows reports that the percentage of kindergartners nationwide who received the MMR, DTaP, polio, and varicella vaccines fell to 93% in the 2021-22 school year from 94% and 95% in the 2020-21 and 2019-20 school years, respectively.
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