The Texas Department of State Health Services is set to lose millions in funding as the Department of Government Efficiency plans another round of cuts.
DOGE plans to cut hundreds of millions of dollars from two U.S. Department of Health and Human Services grants, which included funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help state, city and county health departments fight infectious diseases.
In a statement, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the funding being cut was linked to COVID-19, but in Texas, those dollars are also being used to combat the ongoing measles outbreak.
Brad Burt, who’s been covering the outbreak for KTTZ in Lubbock, said it’s unclear how local health organizations will be impacted by the cuts.
“It seems to be a done deal from what we’ve seen from the Texas Department of State Health Services. They have told communities that were receiving these grants to stop funding immediately,” he said. “They said do not accrue any additional costs as of … March 24.”
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Burt said this money is being used to help support the local response to measles.
“In Lubbock, the grants were used mostly to pay for temporary staff,” he said. “An epidemiologist to help with vaccinations, those who are helping to cover the work of others who were pulled to respond to the new patients coming in for measles vaccines, as well as testing and treatment on that front.”
Some health departments in other states have said that they were getting ready to lay off epidemiologists and data scientists. Burt said Texas hasn’t made any official announcements of this kind yet.
“We’re still waiting to see what the full impact of these cuts are going to be,” he said. “But we know from what other states have said that this could result in reduction in staff and their ability to respond to things in more than just in COVID-19 or measles by several health organizations that were fundamental in response to many illnesses around the country have applied these funds.”
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Meanwhile, the measles outbreak continues to spread.
“[We’ve seen] fairly consistent increases in numbers over the past few weeks,” Burt said. “They said early on that this could go on for a while, and that seems to be the case.
“We’re still testing, expecting new numbers today, but the last count was just over 300 individuals in the state of Texas alone who have tested positive for measles since this outbreak began in late February. Hospitalizations were around 40 people over the last few weeks, many of them here in Lubbock where those funds were going to be used.”
