The Department of Health and Human Services has abruptly canceled more than $12 billion in federal grants to states that were being used for tracking infectious diseases, mental health services, addiction treatment and other urgent health issues.<\/p>\n
The cuts are likely to further hamstring state health departments, which are already underfunded and struggling with competing demands from chronic diseases, resurgent infections like syphilis and emerging threats like bird flu.<\/p>\n
State health departments began receiving notices on Monday evening that the funds, which were allocated during the Covid-19 pandemic, were being terminated, effective immediately.<\/p>\n
“No additional activities can be conducted, and no additional costs may be incurred, as it relates to these funds,” the notices said.<\/p>\n
For some, the effect was immediate.<\/p>\n
In Lubbock, Texas, public health officials have received orders to stop work supported by three grants that helped fund the response to the widening measles outbreak there, according to Katherine Wells, the city’s director of public health.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, some state health departments were preparing to lay off dozens of epidemiologists and data scientists. Others, including Texas, Maine and Rhode Island, were still scrambling to understand the impact of the cuts before taking any action.<\/p>\n
In interviews, state health officials predicted that thousands of health department employees and contract workers could lose their jobs nationwide. Some predicted the loss of as much as 90 percent of staff from some infectious disease teams.<\/p>\n
“The reality is that, when we take funding away from public health systems, the systems just do not have the capacity, because they’re chronically underfunded over the decades,” said Dr. Umair Shah, who served as Washington State’s health secretary until January.<\/p>\n
The news of the cuts was first reported by NBC.<\/p>\n
The discontinued grants include about $11.4 billion from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as around $1 billion from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, known as S.A.M.H.S.A.<\/p>\n
Congress authorized the money for state public health programs as part of Covid relief bills. The funds were indeed initially used for testing for and vaccination against the coronavirus, as well as to address health disparities in high-risk populations.<\/p>\n
But last year, the money was also allowed to be put toward other pressing public health concerns, including testing and surveillance of other respiratory viruses, an array of vaccines for children or uninsured adults and preparedness for health emergencies.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the federal Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement: “The Covid-19 pandemic is over, and H.H.S. will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a nonexistent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago.”<\/p>\n
The Trump administration’s cancellations of grants and contracts throughout the government has led to numerous lawsuits from states and nonprofit groups, which are still in their early stages. The health grants in question were authorized and appropriated by Congress, and their termination may lead to new lawsuits. Several states said they were exploring legal options.<\/p>\n
“We will continue to assess the full impacts and are in touch with the Attorney General’s Office and the 49 other states facing similar challenges,” Governor Maura Healey of Massachusetts said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The surplus funds had been a boon for cash-strapped public health departments seeking to modernize their creaky systems.<\/p>\n
For example, Alaska had been applying some of the funds toward purchasing lab equipment and updating electronic records, so that state epidemiologists would no longer need to fill in patient details manually. Other states were building systems to link surveillance data from hospitals and labs to health departments.<\/p>\n