The federal government has spent billions

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More than 2.4 million sexually transmitted infections were reported in 2020, according to the CDC.

"I don't think any health department in America could handle all the STIs that get reported to them," Kiernan said.

Of dollars fighting the COVID pandemic, and some COVID-related grants will be used to expand the overall public health workforce.

But the CDC and Congress often designate funds for specific purposes, said Lori Tremmel Freeman, head of the National Association of County and City Health Officials. "If you have somebody working on COVID, you can't just reassign them to monkeypox using the same bucket of money," Freeman said.

And in some states, that money hasn't yet reached public buy phone number list health departments or sexual health clinics.

The CDC gave Michigan millions of dollars to strengthen its public health workforce, but the Michigan Legislature appropriated only a portion of the money. Heisler wrote to multiple state legislators begging them to free up the remaining funds. None replied to her.

Public health workers say they hope monkeypox will be a wake-up call.

"I hope this drives home the need for more investing in public health infrastructure," said Kwan-Gett of the Washington state health department, "because without that investment, this is just going to happen again and again."

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

Health officials across the U.S. and around the world are racing to curb a rapidly growing outbreak of monkeypox cases, deploying both vaccines and treatments to fight a disease.