The federal government鈥檚 $11.4 billion clawback of COVID-19-era funding to state and local health department funding has sent Texas public health agencies scrambling to make sense of its impact.
The impacted grants funded testing, vaccinations, community health workers and other initiatives during the COVID-19 pandemic, , which first reported on the cuts.
A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson said Tuesday the federal administration will prioritize funding to address chronic diseases and fund the Trump administration鈥檚 Make America Healthy Again initiative.
鈥�(Health and Human Services) will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago,鈥� HHS communications director Andrew Nixon told NBC in a statement.
However, North Texas public health leaders say the pandemic revealed a need for greater community monitoring and outreach 鈥� and federal funding made it possible for their departments to expand.
Matt Richardson, director of Denton County Public Health, compared public health departments to the United States Secret Service.
鈥淵ou don鈥檛 see the planning that goes into the events,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 see the protection, you don鈥檛 see the hard work, but you do see the events themselves.鈥�
The funding cuts affected six positions at Denton County Public Health, Richardson said, including positions in nursing, community health and epidemiology. He鈥檚 working with other county government officials to find other funding sources to extend some of the positions in the county鈥檚 existing budget.
鈥淭he COVID funds allowed us to expand our disease investigations, and we can鈥檛 let that go,鈥� Richardson said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e got to find a way to save those dollars and those positions.鈥�
A Texas Department of State Health Services spokesperson told 四虎影院 the agency is 鈥渆valuating the potential effects of the funding changes.鈥�
Dallas County Health and Human Services Director Dr. Philip Huang said two of the county鈥檚 largest impacted grants are funded through the DSHS.
One funds lab capacity, including lab equipment that can help test for COVID and measles, as well as epidemiology services such as outbreak investigations and contact tracing. The grant also supported data modernization.
鈥淲e鈥檝e gone from at the beginning of COVID dealing with paper faxes of our lab reports and manually entering to try to get it all electronic,鈥� he said.
Another grant impacts immunization efforts, including staffing for vaccination clinics.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not just COVID vaccinations that they provide, but these are some of the staff that have been doing childhood vaccination,鈥� Huang said.
The employees covered under the grant have also offered vaccinations for the flu and measles. Agencies including DCHHS have reached out to North Texas communities with lower vaccination rates as a measles outbreak affects West Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma.
Huang said the cuts will greatly impact smaller public health departments as they contend with measles cases.
鈥淓very dollar counts in those settings, and they don鈥檛 have as many staff,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o when you start cutting any staff, that really affects the community鈥檚 ability to respond to some of these things.鈥�
A spokesperson with Tarrant County Public Health told 四虎影院 the department鈥檚 commitment to the community 鈥渞emains steadfast鈥� through the funding changes, but did not respond to specific questions about the cuts鈥� impacts.
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