jerrab » Yesterday, 2:33 pm » wrote: ↑
https://kffhealthnews.org/public-health ... ding-cuts/
More than a dozen vaccination clinics were canceled in Pima County, Arizona. So was a media blitz to bring low-income children in Washoe County, Nevada, up to date on their shots.Planned clinics were also scuttled in
Texas,
Minnesota, and
Washington, among other places.Immunization efforts across the country were upended after the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
abruptly canceled $11.4 billion in covid-related funds for state and local health departments in late March.A federal judge
temporarily blocked the cuts last week, but many of the organizations that receive the funds said they must proceed as though they’re gone, raising concerns amid a resurgence of measles, a rise in vaccine hesitancy, and growing distrust of public health agencies.
“I’m particularly concerned about the accessibility of vaccines for vulnerable populations,” former U.S. surgeon general Jerome Adams told KFF Health News. Adams served in President Donald Trump’s first administration. “Without high vaccination rates, we are setting those populations and communities up for preventable harm.”The Department of Health and Human Services, which houses the CDC, does not comment on ongoing litigation, spokesperson Vianca Rodriguez Feliciano said. But she sent a statement on the original action, saying that HHS made the cuts because the covid-19 pandemic is over: “HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago.”Still, clinics have also used the money to address other preventable diseases such as flu, mpox, and measles. More than
500 cases of measles so far in a Texas outbreak have led to 57 hospitalizations and the deaths of two school-age children. .Your Email AddressSign Up
In Pima County, Arizona, officials learned that one of its vaccination programs would have to end early because the federal government
took away its remaining $1 million in grant money. The county had to cancel about 20 vaccine events offering covid and flu shots that it had already scheduled, said Theresa Cullen, director of the county health department. And it isn’t able to plan any more, she said.The county is home to Tucson, the second-largest city in Arizona. But it also has sprawling rural areas, including part of the Tohono O’odham Nation, that are far from many health clinics and pharmacies, she said.The county used the federal grant to offer free vaccines in mostly rural areas, usually on the weekends or after usual work hours on weekdays, Cullen said. The programs are held at community organizations, during fairs and other events, or inside buses turned into mobile health clinics.