Government Shutdown. “The CDC would furlough key staff amid one of the most severe flu seasons in recent memory….”

“The last government shutdown — which lasted for 16 days in October 2013 — sheds light on just how far flung are the consequences of congressional inaction, especially for health companies and public health workers. STAT talked to former officials at the FDA, CDC, and NIH about how that shutdown affected the work they could do…
In 2013, the CDC shuttered most of its annual seasonal influenza program during the shutdown. It largely stopped tracking disease outbreaks across the country, ceasing communications with the local officials and clinicians who help the federal workers connect the dots when an outbreak might be growing. It stopped testing most incoming samples and specimens to ensure safety, and it largely stopped monitoring infections at airports around the country, according to documents and former agency staffers…” (A)

(A) How a government shutdown could affect drug safety, flu response, and more, by ERIN MERSHON and IKE SWETLITZ, https://www.statnews.com/2018/01/17/government-shutdown-cdc-fda-nih/