UPDATED (15/4/2025): Cuts announced by the US Health and Human Services department are expected to “severely” impact efforts to reduce continued elevated levels of alcohol harm.
“Without a doubt, alcohol prevention and regulation is being severely impacted by the firing,” Mike Marshall, CEO of the Alcohol Health Policy Alliance, told Alcohol Review last week
“My understanding is that most alcohol-specific programmes have been dismantled but we will need to see, once the dust settles, what that actually means.”
US alcohol deaths were still 17% up on pre-pandemic levels last year, according to provisional figures from the CDC, among the organisations facing job losses. At their peak deaths surged by nearly 40%.
There has so far been no reliable breakdown of the details of the cuts. The HHS said last week it expects to reduce its workforce by around a quarter to 62,000, only to later say errors would mean the closses would not be quite so big.
A court case filing on Friday from 16 Democrat-led states suing the Trump administration for what they say are unlawful research funding cuts cited two alcohol studies involving minorities.
Trump announced $11bn cuts to health services including addiction and mental health services in late March, prompting another mult-state lawsuit
. By mid-April some local providers alcohol and other drug services began warning of funding shortfalls.
It is reported that staff from the Office of Smoking and Health are among those dismissed. ■