Funding to fight measles outbreak in Texas hit by DOGE cuts
These grants included funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help the state, city and county health departments fight infectious diseases, including measles, which has infected more 335 people in the state since January.
Texas was one of multiple state health departments that received notice of the funding cuts, totaling $12 billion, on Monday. Texas had the largest cuts among the states, according to DOGE's "Wall of Receipts" online "efficiency" list.
"We're evaluating the potential effects of the funding changes," said Chris Van Deusen, director of media relations for the Texas Department of State Health Services.
He did not answer questions about how the state would manage its programs without this funding or whether his department would be asking for more funding from the state Legislature, which is now in session.
In a statement, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the funding being cut was linked to COVID-19 funds, and "the COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago."
The cuts are coming as Texas is experiencing a measles outbreak with 335 positive cases this year, most in Gaines County in West Texas, but one in Travis County from an infant who got the highly contagious disease while traveling out of the country. The baby was not being old enough for the first measles, mumps and rubella vaccination, which is typically given at 1 years old.
In Lubbock, where doctors are treating the patients who have needed to be hospitalized with measles, the city public health department was told to stop work it was doing to try to control the outbreak because the funding is no longer available, according to a statement from the department.
Before these latest cuts, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, and two other representatives from Texas sent a letter to the CDC's acting director about funding cuts, what the CDC would be able to do to help the state with the measles outbreak and whether the CDC had the ability to give the public accurate information after the Trump administration has sought to limit information the agency can share with the public.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Funding to fight Texas measles outbreak hit by DOGE cuts
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