Larsen Speaks to Newsweek About Funding Cuts to the CDC's National Wastewater Surveillance System

June 3, 2026

Newsweek

David Larsen

Public Health Department

Center for Policy Research

COVID-19

Federal

U.S. Health Policy

United States

Wastewater Surveillance

Newsweek

Portrait of a smiling person in a blue shirt, standing in front of a blurred brick building background.

David Larsen

Proposed federal budget cuts would reduce CDC wastewater surveillance funding from $125 million to $25 million annually, potentially eliminating national disease tracking for outbreaks beyond seasonal pathogens like flu and COVID-19. The cuts come as experts warn the system is a cost-effective early warning tool, and as the new “cicada” COVID-19 variant has already been detected in 25 states.

Dave Larsen, professor and chair of public health, says that with the cuts, $25 million would only be enough to fund wastewater surveillance in a few states, and mean only seasonal epidemic pathogens like influenza, RSV and COVID-19 could be tracked.

“But we would lose wastewater surveillance as a tool to respond to outbreaks such as hantavirus, Ebola, measles or polio,” he says. “And we would lose the national coverage that the current wastewater surveillance system has.”

Read more in the Newsweek article, “Worrying COVID ‘Cicada’ Variant Spreads as US Maps Go Dark.”