Public health experts worry the confusion stirred by a Trump administration funding freeze memo will not end quickly, harming public health services.

“It’s really hard to tell what’s actually happening, and I’m sure the agencies don’t know what’s happening and whether they should go forward or not, whether funding should continue or whether funding should stop,” said Josh Michaud, associate director of Global Health Policy at health policy nonprofit KFF. “It’s just a land of confusion right now.”

A memo issued by the head of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on Monday directing a widespread pause to federal loans and grants set off a wave of uncertainty and alarm among federal assistance programs, federally funded health clinics, nonprofits and schools as they wondered if they would lose government funding.

The Trump administration said the order would not impact Medicare, Social Security or other direct assistance, but the public health world feared assistance programs like Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children risked losing their government funding.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C.,

© The Hill