WASHINGTON – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will soon release previously delayed funds intended to prevent fentanyl poisonings and drug overdoses, according to a report by National Public Radio.
A senior CDC official and a staff member, both speaking anonymously to NPR, confirmed that the agency will fully fund the Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) program. The program supports 90 health departments across the country with efforts to reduce overdoses, distribute naloxone, enhance surveillance, and guide state and local responses to the opioid crisis.
Last month, NPR reported that the Trump administration had been withholding $140 million in funding from the OD2A program, citing broader issues with federal funding at the CDC.
The move to release the funds comes after weeks of concern from public health advocates, who warned of the risks of delaying or partially funding overdose prevention efforts.
“Every delay, every spending freeze — these translate to lost time and lives,” Sharon Gilmartin, executive director of the Safe States Alliance, said at a press conference Monday, according to NPR.
Advocates are also raising alarm about other proposed cuts to drug overdose and substance abuse prevention. Gilmartin authored an op-ed warning about a proposal to eliminate the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, the agency that helps states and communities prevent deaths from overdose and other injuries.
“At a time when the U.S. is experiencing a welcome and long-overdue decline in drug overdose deaths, a decline that public health experts attribute to the very programs the administration seeks to dismantle, this progress is clearly threatened,” Gilmartin wrote.
