Shelby County Health Department Admits COVID-19 Funding Pulled by Trump Admin Used for ‘Mpox,’ ‘Other Infectious Diseases’

The Director of Health in Shelby County, Tennessee, acknowledged on Thursday that pandemic-era grant money, pulled by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy and the Trump administration, was being used to treat diseases other than COVID-19.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) informed the public that more than $11 billion in COVID-19 grant money was scheduled to recalled by the agency in March, when HHS Director of Communications Andrew Nixon declaring the “pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago.”

Instead, Nixon said that funding would be redirected toward “projects that will deliver on President Trump’s mandate to address our chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again.”

Despite the advanced warning from the HHS and CDC, Dr. Michelle Taylor, the Shelby County Health Department director, told News Channel 3 that the loss of COVID-19 funding came as a surprise.

“We get this letter saying work was supposed to have stopped as of yesterday. It was that abrupt,” said Taylor. She told the outlet, “My immediate reaction was, what do you mean that we were supposed to stop work yesterday? In what world does that make sense?”

While she insisted the money was going to good use, the doctor acknowledged that COVID-19 is no longer a pressing issue in Memphis or Shelby County and described how the county health department has reassigned some federal dollars.

“We had been able to flex that funding to do more than just COVID,” she told News Channel 3, explaining that the pandemic grant money was used “to tackle Mpox, to tackle other infectious diseases,” and for “vital community outreach work that we need in this community to reach hard to reach populations.”

The World Health Organization has named the disease formerly known as monkeypox Mpox. As of October 2024, there were just nine reported cases of Mpox in Shelby County.

Grant recipients were invited to appeal the loss of funding following the March announcement, but Taylor told the outlet that legal action may instead be forthcoming, while acknowledging the decision would be made by Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris.

When announcing the end of the federal grants, Kennedy noted that while his department’s budget grew under the Biden administration, the funding boost did not translate into healthier Americans.

“Under the Biden administration, HHS’s budget grew by 38% and staffing increased by 17%, yet public health outcomes declined,” said Kennedy. “We’re committed to restoring our health agencies to their gold-standard tradition of evidence-based science — through greater efficiency and accountability.”

– – –

Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].