Schumer Reveals: Trump Admin Spent Last Year Firing The Command & Crew Of The CDC Team That Oversees Public Health For Cruise Ships; Now Hantavirus Emerges, Leader Schumer[...]

Schumer Says Trump Fired CDC Cruise Ship Inspectors And Port Health Workers Now Needed To Track Americans Exposed To Hantavirus; Three Of CDC's Twenty Port Health Stations Have No Staff At All, Most Other Staff Greatly Depleted, CDC Has Not Revealed How Many

New York, NY - Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called on President Trump and Secretaries Kennedy and Rubio to restore infectious disease research, vaccine, and vital-threat funding gutted across HHS and CDC, and rejoin the W.H.O. as hantavirus outbreak spreads.

Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) revealed that the Trump administration spent the past year firing the command and crew of the CDC team responsible for overseeing cruise ships and protecting public health, just as a deadly hantavirus outbreak emerged. Of the 17 Americans initially aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship, six have already returned to the U.S., and the rest began heading home this morning. Schumer demanded that the administration immediately rehire the CDC cruise ship inspectors and Port Health Station staff fired under cuts driven by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE),restore the infectious disease, vaccine, and viral-threat funding gutted under Trump and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and rejoin the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) to protect Americans as the outbreak spreads. Schumer is also demanding that Secretary Kennedy and Secretary of State Marco Rubio detail the federal response, including how many CDC staff are actually working on the hantavirus response, current staffing levels at the Port Health Stations and Vessel Sanitation Program, details on coordination with the W.H.O. member states, and the administration's plan to protect the American people.

The hantavirus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship has killed three people and infected at least eight, with the W.H.O. classifying every passenger and crew member on the ship as a high-risk contact. Passengers began disembarking the ship in Tenerife, Spain, this morning. Six Americans have already returned to the U.S. after disembarking on April 24, and the remaining Americans are now heading home, with six states - Arizona, California, Georgia, New Jersey, Texas, and Virginia - already monitoring residents who may have been exposed. The outbreak strain, the Andes virus, is the only hantavirus strain known to spread person-to-person. About 38% of people who develop hantavirus-related respiratory symptoms die. There is no vaccine and no specific treatment.

"Public health under this administration is a sinking ship, and Trump keeps firing the crew," said Leader Schumer. "The very CDC inspectors and port health workers we need to track this virus, the people whose entire job is to keep deadly diseases off cruise ships and out of our country, Donald Trump fired them. This White House will tell you the risk to Americans is low. How do they know? They have made it impossible to find out. That is not reassurance. That is incompetence."

Last April, HHS fired every full-time employee at the CDC's Vessel Sanitation Program as part of indiscriminate cuts driven by DOGE under Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and Russ Vought. The Vessel Sanitation Program is funded entirely by fees paid by cruise ship companies and costs taxpayers nothing. Three of the CDC's 20 Port Health Stations have no staff at all, half have no officer in charge, and the remainder rely on temporary workers, leaving the country's first line of defense against incoming infectious diseases dangerously thin. The CDC has refused to disclose current staffing levels. The agency also lacks a permanent director, with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya serving in an acting capacity during the outbreak.

"We have been here before with this president, and it did not end well," Schumer said. "Donald Trump botched COVID. He called it a hoax. He told Americans to inject bleach. He dismantled the pandemic response team months before the virus hit. More than a million Americans died. Years later, we are in the same trouble because this administration is cutting workers and leaving us in jeopardy."

The cuts extend across the federal public health infrastructure. The Trump administration has proposed eliminating $750 million in preparedness grants for state and local health departments, firing Epidemic Intelligence Service fellows who serve as the country's frontline disease detectives, and gutting infectious disease research, vaccine platform research, and viral-threat surveillance programs across HHS and the CDC. The administration also withdrew the United States from the W.H.O., cutting off American access to the global data sharing and coordination network leading the international response to the hantavirus outbreak.

"The administration is flying blind by choice," Schumer said. "This needs to be taken seriously. Right now. Not after the first American case. Not after the first American death. Right now. Rehire the fired CDC inspectors, port health workers, and disease detectives. Restore the infectious disease, vaccine, and preparedness funding that Trump and RFK Jr. gutted. Rejoin the W.H.O. and get the United States back in the room. Rehire. Restore. Rejoin. Before it is too late."

Schumer is demanding Secretaries Kennedy and Rubio respond by May 17^th with the number of full-time CDC staff working on the hantavirus response, current staffing at the Port Health Stations and Vessel Sanitation Program, the administration's communication channels with the W.H.O., the plan to protect the American public including any traveler screening protocols, and the coordination between CDC and state and local health departments receiving Americans returning from the ship.

The full text of the letter can be seen here.

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