Federal spending cuts have hit Texas’ public health agencies amid rapidly spreading disease outbreaks.
Texas had 422 measles cases as of April 1, according to state health data, and at least 22 new infections were confirmed over the last five days. In February, state health officials confirmed the death of an unvaccinated child in Lubbock, the first one in the country since 2015. Hospitalizations have also increased due to more medical disinformation about measles remedies.
Dallas County Health and Human Services laid off 21 workers since Friday and canceled 50 vaccine events scheduled for the next year, it announced on Tuesday, NBC DFW reported.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services cut workers nationwide the same day, following directions from the Department of Government Efficiency, spearheaded by unelected bureaucrat and tech billionaire Elon Musk. Under the Trump administration, more than 100,000 federal employees across agencies had lost their jobs as of April 1, according to USA Today. Last week, the federal government slashed $12 billion in grants given to state health departments during the COVID-19 pandemic — which were being used to monitor and prevent infectious diseases like measles and bird flu.
Three of Dallas County’s grants were affected by federal cuts, said Philip Huang, Dallas County Health and Human Services director, in a Tuesday Dallas County Commissioners Court meeting. Huang reportedly said the federal government notified him via email last week. Two of those grants totaled more than $40 million and were set to expire in July 2026.
“We got the notification on Tuesday evening from the State Health Department because they were still trying to interpret what was going on,” Huang said. “But all of them said that the funding stopped the day before. “
Following staff layoffs in their immunization program, Huang said local vaccine efforts in the county will slow down. The 50 canceled community vaccine events were initially scheduled for the next year, he said. Some federal funding covered the costs for additional lab equipment to help with rapid measles testing, according to NBC DFW.
“For the measles situation, we had contacted a lot of schools that had lower vaccination rates,” Huang said. “They had contacted us to set up clinics to go to those schools. Well, that’s some of what we’re having to cancel.”
Huang said these federal spending cuts will make Texas less equipped to handle issues like the current measles outbreaks in Texas. Dallas County plans to refer residents to existing health clinics that administer vaccines if they don’t receive additional support from the federal government, Huang said.
“What’s happening here is not a planned-out effort (by the federal government). It’s very haphazard,” Huang said. “You can’t replace these tens of millions of dollars. They’re not available in that scale. I mean, this is what’s tragic. This is truly setting all of us back decades in terms of the public health infrastructure.”
Read more at NBC DFW.
