A former official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that funding cuts outlined in the proposed fiscal year 2026 federal budget could endanger the health of Black communities.
And especially in Georgia, where HIV rates are some of the highest in the country, he warned that Black women are extra vulnerable to these cuts.
These proposed funding cuts are not related to the “Big, Beautiful Bill” that was signed into law last week by President Donald Trump.
In an interview with Capital B News Atlanta, John Brooks, the former chief medical officer for the CDC’s Division of HIV Prevention, warns that the proposed federal budget for fiscal year 2026 cuts funding for domestic HIV surveillance, testing, education, and outreach, programs which could be detrimental for Black communities suffering from HIV.
“This is going to be a major step backwards for controlling the HIV epidemic for Black Americans,” said Brooks, who retired from the CDC in 2024.
Read More: CDC Cuts HIV Communications, Leaving Vulnerable Black Georgians in the Dark
Georgia had the second-highest HIV diagnosis rate and the second-highest rate of HIV-related deaths in 2023 in the U.S., according to the CDC.
Georgia had the highest rate of new HIV infections in 2022, and despite constituting about 32% of Georgia’s population, Black people accounted for approximately 71% of new HIV diagnoses in 2021.
Brooks said Black women in particular are disproportionately impacted by HIV, noting they had the highest rates of HIV for women across different racial and ethnic demographics in the U.S. in 2023.
“It’s estimated that about half of all new HIV infections in women in this country are among Black women,” said Brooks.
According to the CDC, the highest rates of HIV diagnoses among Black women were from women residing in the South.
“The epidemic has always been particularly concentrated in the southeast United States, where there’s a substantial disproportionality between the fraction of Black Americans living in the South versus their proportional representation among people with HIV, and the same is true for Hispanic persons,” said Brooks.
According to the Georgia Department of Public Health, Black cisgender men with male-to-male sexual contact accounted for the most HIV diagnoses in Georgia, with 40% of diagnoses in 2023. Black cisgender women had the second-highest rate (with an HIV infection attributed to heterosexual contact), with 14% of HIV diagnoses in Georgia in 2023.
According to a public database put together by fired and retired CDC staff, the proposed budget would cut the CDC’s budget by more than half, taking it from $9.3 billion to $4.2 billion.
The group, Fired But Fighting, who advocate for CDC employees they believe were wrongfully terminated, notes on its website that state and local health departments would be greatly impacted by the proposed cuts, as nearly 80% of the CDC’s annual domestic budget is allocated to local health entities.
About $4.7 billion was provided in 2023 alone in grants to support health departments, hospitals, universities, and nonprofits across the country, the group said on its website.
In a press conference held by the advocacy group last week, other former officials of the CDC also raised concerns over how the budget cuts could negatively impact the health of local communities across the country.
“Instead of investing in these lifesaving programs, the current budget leaves the American people to pay the price tag with both their lives and money,” said Brian King, a former health official at the CDC and U.S. Food and Drug Administration, who worked on tobacco prevention.
Read More: CDC Reinstates HIV Prevention Staff Months After Controversial Layoffs
And for Georgia specifically, the state could lose around $382 million in grants if the proposed budget is approved, according to the group’s database. Within that number, around $50 million in grant money designated to HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, sexually transmitted infections, and tuberculosis prevention could be eliminated.
“You can’t get out of this epidemic with treatment alone, which is where they’re focusing their efforts,” said Brooks. “And HIV in the U.S. can’t be eliminated unless it’s eliminated for all of us by rectifying long-standing disparities.”
On top of the cuts in funding, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is undergoing major restructuring. As part of the proposed budget, various departments within HHS will be eliminated or consolidated into the Administration for a Healthy America, or AHA.
But Brooks said based on what the budget outlines, it’s currently unclear how AHA will be handling domestic HIV prevention, if at all.
“It’s very unclear what’s going to happen to things like HIV surveillance, which is counting the number of cases,” said Brooks. “Monitoring new infections is fundamental to controlling HIV in America; it’s like the radar that shows you where you need to look to find problems and provide prevention services to stop the epidemic from spreading.”
And while a number of staff members at the CDC that were previously fired were asked to come back to work in June, Brooks said there’s a lot of uncertainty for those working in the Division of HIV Prevention, given that many of their jobs are not accounted for in the budget for 2026.
“They don’t know how long they’re employed for. There hasn’t been any clear statement. It’s a really hard place to work right now. Just imagine how unstable It must feel, one having been fired then brought back and not knowing why, and not knowing how long it’s going to last, and that it could end at a moment’s notice,” said Brooks.
