Amid a deluge of cuts to federal spending, the Trump administration has canceled three grants totaling $85.6 million to Santa Clara County that helped fund public well being initiatives associated to the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccines.
Greater than 98% of the grant funds had already been spent by the point they had been canceled in March, however County Government James Williams and Dr. Sarah Rudman, the performing public well being officer, fear that the terminations are simply “the tip of the iceberg.” The $85.6 million is a sliver of the $3.6 billion in federal funds the county receives annually — roughly $140 million of that comes within the type of grants that assist packages spanning from public well being and housing to transportation and public security.
The three canceled grants had been awarded on the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, however Rudman mentioned it allowed the county’s public well being division to “protect the community from many more diseases well beyond COVID.”
“In some ways, the work that was directly hit by (the termination of) these grants remains some of the most important work we do in public health — protecting people from immediate outbreaks, deadly disease and vaccine preventable infections is something that in many ways is only something the public health department can do,” Rudman mentioned in an interview.
Solely one of many grants — a $5.7 million initiative to deal with COVID-19 well being disparities — was administered immediately by the federal authorities. Rudman mentioned it was centered on communities that had been hit the toughest by the pandemic and prevention efforts to make sure those self same areas wouldn’t disproportionately be impacted by no matter illness comes subsequent. However the grant termination discover that Santa Clara County acquired mentioned it was canceled “for cause” as a result of finish of the pandemic.
United States well being officers ended the federal COVID-19 public well being emergency in Could 2023, although the virus continues to flow into.
“These grants and cooperative agreements were issued for a limited purpose: to ameliorate the effects of the pandemic,” the termination discover mentioned. “Now that the pandemic is over, the grants and cooperative agreements are no longer necessary, as their limited purpose has run out.”
The opposite two grants had been administered by the California Division of Public Well being. On March 28, the county acquired a letter from the state that the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention ended a number of grants and that work carried out by native well being departments in these areas wouldn’t be compensated by the state if the federal authorities doesn’t present reimbursement. The county mentioned no cause was given for the termination of the grants.
The $62 million epidemiology and laboratory capability grant allowed the county to replace its public well being lab, giving it entry to modernized testing capabilities. Rudman mentioned that due to the grant, they “were able to be the first place in the country that detected H5N1 bird flu in raw cows milk using a novel testing mechanism.”
“This is one we never would have been able to do without the same personnel, facilities and technology we built off of these COVID-focused grants,” she mentioned.
The final grant, which was practically $18 million, was associated to vaccines and helped the county entry COVID vaccines, observe the vaccine provide and educate individuals in regards to the vaccine.
In a press release, Williams, the county govt, mentioned that as quickly because the grants had been terminated, the “county took action to claim expenditures made related to these grants to ensure we were effectively reimbursed for what was owed by the federal government. The county had to spend an extraordinary amount of effort to shift budget strategies and prioritize claiming faster than usual in order to accomplish this.”
The county is dealing with budgetary uncertainty, with roughly 30% of its funds coming from federal {dollars}. Bracing for affect, Williams has really useful pulling practically $70 million in federal funds out of the upcoming funds that the county assumes will both not be out there or have new situations positioned on them. Of these funds, $19.3 million was speculated to go to the Public Well being Division.
On the similar time, federal well being businesses have introduced plans for mass layoffs, and the Trump administration has tried to wipe well being data off authorities web sites referring to the LGBTQ+ group, HIV/AIDS and reproductive care.
“The federal government has been quite clear in signaling what they intend to do in terms of dismantling of the infrastructure we rely on to make people have an opportunity to be healthy and to be safe,” Rudman mentioned. “One of the things that I think is so important that we’re doing here in Santa Clara County is we are not waiting for the federal hits to come.”
