Contact: Matt Prior, [email protected], 570-878-3847

Washington, D.C. —  Due to new information, David C. Harvey, executive director of National Coalition of STD Directors (NCSD), issued the following update to a Friday, March 20 press release calling on Congress to allocate $200 million to CDC’s Division of STD Prevention:

“Based on the latest assessment of the impact of coronavirus on STD public health programs, this weekend NCSD learned that the vast majority of Disease Investigation Specialists (DIS) and other STD public health workers supported with federal STD funding are redeployed to fight coronavirus.

These staff are highly trained to conduct outbreak investigations, surveillance, and contact tracing. NCSD supports the use of DIS and the STD public health workforce in the efforts to combat COVID-19 and are encouraged that the nation recognizes the vitally important skill set of this workforce.

Writing yesterday for CNN about our nation’s COVID-19 response, Dr. Thomas Frieden, former Director of CDC, said that the U.S. needs to build “an army of skilled public health workers” to do innovative contact tracing driven by new data.

To respond to this national emergency, NCSD calls upon Congress and CDC to allocate $200 million to CDC’s Division of STD Prevention to build this army of DIS and other public health workers. This essential workforce has been decimated over the past 20 years by funding cuts.

With lives at risk, these highly skilled workers are one of our best bets. Let’s not sell our nation short.”