In the last 15 years, public health, the country's frontline defense in epidemics, lost 45% of its inflation-adjusted funding for staff, training, equipment and supplies.
US learned from Ebola but is 'nowhere near as prepared' as needed if coronavirus outbreak happened here
In the meantime, another $136 million in funding cuts from other HHS agencies, including $37 million from heating assistance for low income families and $4.9 million from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, is now being transferred to states, HHS spokeswoman Caitlin Oakley said Friday.
Counties wracked by opiods in states including West Virginia, Indiana and Ohio – all ranked by Trust for America's Health among the 13 least prepared states for a public health emergency – now have to prepare for the possibility of airline passengers needing immediate isolation in hotels and relying on state and federal money redirected from other pressing needs.
In Ohio, Columbus' Public Health Commissioner Dr. Mysheika Roberts said if anyone is to blame for a lack of preparedness, it's the federal government as it determines most of the funding for local health departments. She called Washington's decisions"unfortunate" but said the state's larger cities were well positioned for a possible outbreak.
It takes six to nine months to find and hire the people capable of doing the testing and other surveillance work needed, said Dr. Lamar Hasbrouck, a former CDC medical epidemiologist, who was Illinois' health secretary from 2012 to 2015. Gupta called it"morally unjustifiable," to move funding, as the administration is, from programs such as addiction prevention at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration.Hasbrouck, who was involved in responses to H1N1, the Middle East respiratory syndrome and Ebola , also worried about patients dealing with other diseases, including those with HIV on Medicaid and other government-supported health insurance coverage.
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