Last week, Jackie Griffiths appeared at the office of Collin County Health Care Clinic in northern Texas. She’s ready to start her day. I answered an email from a local doctor before heading to a nearby high school to look up the latest vaccine record requirements.
Instead, the 60-year-old registered nurse was called to the superintendent’s office and told to pack her belongings. The federal government was pulling funds, she learned, and she no longer supports her position – vaccination efforts for uninsured children through a network of over 60 providers.
All over New Hampshire, 27-year-old Kayla Hogan had heard the same thing. She worked in the state Department of Health and Human Services, onboarding clinics and hospitals, with data systems that help manage free pediatric vaccines. Now, the project is at risk and threatens the process of vaccinating children.
A new report from the CDC shows that vaccine exemptions have reached the highest rate ever among US children entering kindergarten.
Many other people exposed to the vaccine in Griffiths, Hogan and many other states were part of the funds Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Department of Health and Human Services pulled back from the state and community health department last week, and some of the funds included in the massive federal cuts of Elon Musk’s Office of Government Efficiency. More than $2 billion has been obtained from the “Children’s Vaccinations and Vaccines” grant, which supports vaccine delivery to children who cannot afford them, according to a list published by HHS.
Kennedy is a long-time anti-vaccine activist with a well-documented history of promoting misinformation, and has pledged to not take the vaccine ahead of his confirmation as HHS secretary. However, since taking office, he has repeatedly downplayed the severity of measles, which is currently cleaning the country. He has not published unpublished treatments, including vitamin A regimens, which are reportedly made to sick children who are limp by the vaccine itself, despite the vaccine providing the safest and most effective way to prevent many infectious diseases. Under his leadership, HHS oversees mass shootings across federal health agencies, including staff responsible for outbreak response and vaccine access. Cancelled or postponed meetings of an independent Vaccine Advisory Committee. And the vaccine education campaign has ended.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was confirmed by the Senate as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday.
Funding cuts under his watch go further, turning his rhetoric into reality and undermining systems that provide life-saving preventive care. Through cuts to state and local health agencies, the new administration is quietly dismantling the vulnerable, interconnected infrastructure that moves childhood vaccines from the federal government to healthcare providers, ultimately administering them to children.
The cuts have hit the health department and health providers, data systems tracking vaccinations, and nonprofit coalitions running the system-wide. They come at a moment when public health officials and supporters say that despite federal guarantees, childhood vaccines are under attack.
“It affects all aspects of vaccination: community outreach, education, health fairs, mobile clinics, public health nurses.” “It’s devastating.”
23 states and Washington, DC sued HHS and Kennedy over a fundraising takeback this week.
HHS did not respond to requests for comment.
Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. RFK Jr. questioned at a Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday that he was industrious for toddlers once sold by child health defense.
Ostensibly, federal cuts were aimed at projects in the COVID era, when no longer needed.
“The Covid-19 pandemic is over. HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars in response to a nonexistent pandemic that Americans have moved for years,” the undergraduate communications director said last week.
The early wave of Covid fundraising focused on testing, vaccines and addressing health disparities as the pandemic waned, but the state’s health department was allowed to shift that money to other underfunded programs.
These grants supplement the vaccines for children, a federal qualification program established by Congress in 1994. However, the successful surgery relies on “child vaccinations and vaccines” funds that were temporarily boosted by relocated COVID dollars until the money was pulled back last week.
Now, the cuts force public health departments across the country to fire staff, cancel vaccine clinics, shut down education and outreach programs, and stop critical physical and virtual infrastructure upgrades. The news reports show that declarations filed in federal lawsuits against HHS and results from investigations implemented by county and city health associations and shared by NBC’s associations.
In Dallas County, Texas, the health director said the cuts forced the cancellation of 50 community vaccination events.
In Minnesota, the Health Department has announced that it will fire 170 employees after losing more than $220 million in federal funds. Some of the victims have the state vaccination registry, which will no longer be upgraded. Minnesota leaves behind one of the most outdated tracking systems in the country.
In California, the Health Department said in a federal filing it cannot provide millions of children with a childhood vaccine, including measles, to about half of the state’s youth.
In Washington, the Health Department has announced that it will fire or fire 46 workers and suspend the mobile clinic business known as Care-A-Van in response to a $20 million grant cut targeting vaccination programs. 104 cancelled clinics were expected to administer 2,000 vaccines to vulnerable children, including rural and homeless people.
“We need to think strategically about how we reach a truly difficult population,” Washington prevention chief Lacey Ferenbach said at a media briefing.
National County and City Health Department investigations have gained further impact. The Ohio department said it plans to suspend vaccine hesitant training. One in Indiana loses two nurses traveling to school to vaccinate their children, so parents don’t have to miss work. Texas agents cannot replace old equipment as planned.
The cut also threatens an invisible but important part of the vaccine infrastructure. It is a data system used by the public health department to record and share vaccinations. Vaccines for children rely on these systems to order doses, approve and track distributions, and monitor safety.
Health departments in Pennsylvania and elsewhere said in a declaration filed in federal cases that cuts would prevent the operation or upgrade of these systems, forcing the nation to rely on outdated, cumbersome platforms. Poor data systems can leave parents and providers behind without access to vaccination records, increasing the risk of missed or replicating doses.
Rebecca Coyle, executive director of the American Immunization Registry Association, said these systems came from an outbreak of measles that claimed the lives of 89 children in the early 1990s.
Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, provides the clearest path to shutting down the Immunology Bank, but children who have a lot of attention to parents who hesitate or completely refuse to receive vaccinations are inability to access the vaccine.
“The way to reach over 60% to 95% of the vaccinated population is to focus on people who have difficulty getting vaccinated for a variety of reasons,” he said. “That includes homeless people, low-income individuals, and people without primary care providers.”
Benjamin said these funding cuts reduced their ability to reach these groups “literally overnight.”
Vaccination Coalition – Nonprofits that connect the public health sector with the community to improve vaccination rates also play a key role. Their work, now largely supported by state and federal dollars, is at risk.
According to executive director Lisa Robertson, the cut caused “huge damage” to the Indiana vaccination coalition. Lisa Robertson said the budget was cut entirely this year and 75% next year as it was funded through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Fund clawbacks will have real consequences,” Robertson said.
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