'Not true': White House denies it cut funding for CDC to fight infectious diseases

White House officials hit back at allegations that cuts to infectious disease budgets were putting people at risk from a coronavirus outbreak in the latest effort to ease public concern.

The Trump administration has been under growing scrutiny for claims it had cut funding at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, making it more difficult to respond to an epidemic.

Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russ Vought said in a White House briefing that the headlines were untrue. He said savings were made through trimming waste and unnecessary programs rather than cutting anything connected to fighting infectious disease.

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