The Trump administration’s cuts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the head of the Department of Health and Human Services, have gutted vital health programs in recent months. And the public is slowly learning about the ramifications of these moves that will make Americans sicker and less able to respond to threats to public health.
One of the latest casualties has been the CDC’s lead poisoning response team at the National Center for Environmental Health, which can no longer help schools in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with their lead problem, according to a report from CBS News.
Seven buildings in the Milwaukee Public School system have been found this year to have concerning levels of lead, according to the Milwaukee Health Department, from both lead paint that’s deteriorating and lead pipes for drinking water. CBS News obtained an email sent to city officials in Milwaukee earlier this month to notify them CDC wouldn’t be able to help.
“I sincerely regret to inform you that due to the complete loss of our Lead Program, we will be unable to support you with this,” Aaron Bernstein, director of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, said in an email obtained by CBS News.
Lead is a neurotoxin and half of Americans are believed to have been exposed to dangerous levels of lead in childhood, according to a study from 2015. The age of the buildings and water infrastructure in Milwaukee are part of the problem, with almost every school building in the city having been built before 1970, according to PBS News. Lead paint wasn’t banned in the U.S. until 1978. The CDC didn’t respond to emails sent Friday, which isn’t surprising given reports of mass layoffs at the agency.
The buildings with concerning levels of lead in Milwaukee include Fernwood Montessori, Golda Meir School, Kagel School, Robert M. LaFollette School, Maryland Avenue Montessori, Starms Early Childhood Center, and Trowbridge School of Great Lakes. Some schools have been temporarily shut down, with students relocated, but others have tried to attempt emergency responses to the lead threat without moving kids.
CDC isn’t the only agency that’s been gutted recently, as anyone who’s been even slightly aware of the news since Trump took office knows all too well. USAID no longer exists as an agency, and billionaire Elon Musk is currently taking his chainsaw to the IRS and the Social Security Administration under the guise of DOGE, the absurdly titled Department of Government Efficiency. Musk is unilaterally choosing what to fund and what not to fund, a glaring conflict of interest since he has lucrative government contracts.
The cuts are unlawful since Congress alone has the power of the purse, but that hasn’t stopped the destruction yet. And it’s unlikely to stop the destruction, as kids in Milwaukee are drinking water with lead in it.
