White House unveils plan to spend $7B to hire public health workers

The White House announced Thursday that it is providing $7.4 billion of funding from the pandemic relief measure passed earlier this year to hire and train public health workers to respond to COVID-19 and future crises.

The funding includes $3.4 billion for “overstretched public health departments” in states and localities to hire additional staff who can work on vaccination outreach, testing, contact tracing and other tasks.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and AmeriCorps will team up to launch a Public Health AmeriCorps, with $400 million in funding “to recruit and build a new workforce ready to respond to the public health needs of the nation,” the White House said.

At least $500 million will go toward hiring school nurses who can help in the COVID-19 vaccination effort for younger people. The CDC on Wednesday cleared the way for adolescents aged 12-15 to get vaccinated, and approval for younger children could come down the line.

A final $3 billion will focus on longer-term funding to “modernize the public health workforce” with a new grant program focused on helping public health departments beyond the current pandemic.