Food programs in poor neighborhoods. People to keep track of covid, measles or other diseases. Programs to help people with addiction.
The cascade of austerity on the Budget from Washington has hundreds of national and local health officers throughout the country who are struggling to assess the impact on their communities and departments.
“I have food programs in some of the poorest postcodes that I cannot give food today. I have REC -centers that are unable to do certain community range,” said Matifadza Hlatshwayo Davis, who leads the city of St. Louis Department of Public Health.
Davis was already staggered from Monday’s news that $ 11 billion was shaved from COVID-19 programs that were paid by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Grants. On Thursday, health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. A huge restructuring from the Ministry of Health and Human Services, intended to be completed within a few months. Many of the affected agencies share data, resources and expertise with local health departments.
“It’s chaotic,” said Davis. “If you think about efficiency, this causes inefficiency.”
Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, was just as destroyed about the HHS changes.
“This reorganization that the secretary did is nonsense,” he said Stat. “This seems that someone has taken a couple of organizations, put them in a pot, shook them out and then, like dice, rolled on the table and then held it on the basis of what their winning was at the moment.”
Davis pointed out that “public health was already on fire for national,” because the field had lost 150,000 public health workers at the end of 2021. “Covid was difficult,” she said.
The CDC subsidies that were canceled on Monday had helped St. Louis to tackle the worst of the Pandemie, and while Covid moved to Endemic, St. Louis and other cities and states were able to extract some money under the COVID blanket and apply it to other needs. That is no longer the case, Davis said.
“We are able to identify social and structural determinants of health and built programs that are in communities with a data -driven approach that is not only as complex as, oh, Covid has disappeared,” she said.
Departments for public health at local and national level are usually dependent on federal subsidies to compensate for about half of their budgets. The broad pullbacks of money that counted on Will on the health status in America, Richard Besser, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and former acting director of the CDC predicted.
“It is not contagious diseases that shorten the lives and the quality of people in America’s lives nowadays. It is chronic diseases, and we have a secretary who talks about wanting to tackle chronic diseases in a great way,” he said Stat. “But how are you abruptly terminating the day before this announcement that subsidies to state and local health departments that meet the needs of mental health and substance abuse and overdosis prevention? How do you do this if you are talking about CDC that focuses on infectious diseases in America in America?”
At least one health department, Tennessee, expressed confidence in the actions of the Trump administration in a statement sent to Stat: “The Ministry of Health has the notification of the CDC regarding the financing of the pandemic era. Since the Federal Government continues to improve the efficiency that we are overtuing our oversceeding that we are over the efficiency of this. To serve. “
A scientist who asked for anonymity, for fear of retaliation for conducting now decided COVID research, was less optimistic about the cuts on public health and research.
“It’s the bull in a China store,” said the researcher. “It will take decades to undo the damage.”
Benjamin said that the loss of Covid money already damaged the nation’s state and local health departments, Benjamin said. The same detectives who follow Covid also follow polio and measles. ‘That money goes to many places that people have to let go right away, “he said.” State and local authorities have their budgets in place and they cannot fill money to fulfill those jobs. “
Losing highly qualified people, many with master’s degrees in public health or MDS in infectious diseases, may not ultimately save money, Davis said she was unable to keep those who call them the most paid people in society.
“If we take out websites and eliminate data without warning, how do our epidemiologists and data analysts have a data-driven approach to surveillance, case research? How do we let the public know what is going on in a responsible manner?” she asked. “If there is an outbreak in St. Louis, I am used to being able to continue with the CDC and the state in real time, and if there is a lot of chaos around someone who loses their job, someone is recovered, some of those communication jobs will immediately be difficult to work in real time.”
Benjamin said that the hindered reaction to the outbreak of measles in Texas showed the pressure on public health. The cuts will make it worse, he said. “If a child appears at your school with whooping cough, pertussis, measles, infectious diseases, you won’t have anyone to find out who is exposed. They don’t have the capacity to give you your chance.”
For the same reasons, he predicts that the reduced public health workforce will translate into more sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV.
Regarding the almost $ 1 billion that is reduced from mental health, he says that this will be felt in busy hospitals.
“People with serious, persistent mental disorders will appear on emergency emergency services in the hospital,” said Benjamin. “So when you come in with your heart attack, it won’t have a bed for you.”
The Covid scientist was in the beginning enthusiastic about the vision behind making American. But no longer.
“It is very clear that they say one thing, but the action on site is different,” the researcher said. “This will not really make America healthy again.”
Benjamin hopes that the administration will listen to what Leaders of Public Health say.
“I think our role is now to show them the impact and to show them that it is not theoretical that what they did today influence people,” he said. “You are always worried about exaggerated reactions. And you know, I don’t respond exaggerated.”
Helen Branswell and Eric Boodman contributed to reporting.
Stat’s coverage of chronic health problems is supported by a subsidy of Bloomberg -Philantropies. Us Financial supporters are not involved in decisions about our journalism.
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