Saint-Louis has been beaten by two tornadoes in the past two months. A fire closed a new nursing home last month in Enterprise, Alberta, forcing residents to evacuate. Cleveland struck a power failure while it was flooded with visitors to the Final Women's Basketball of the NCAA.
In each case, local health officials played a key role containing the benefits, helping hospitals, finding new houses for displaced residents and coordinating efforts with fires, police and other city services.
Funding for this work, around $ 735 million in total, comes from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the budget proposed by President Trump, the money was zero.
The proposed reduction has left increasingly alarmed health officials, in particular because it followed $ 12 billion in national and local health services in March. Nineteen states and the Columbia district continued to prevent discounts.
“Artificial and natural disasters do not depend on federal funding, but an answer to Save Lives the fact,” said Dr. Matifadza Hlatatshwayo Davis, director of health at St. Louis. (Dr. Davis has resigned but remains until the city finds a replacement.)
The city faces huge chasms, regularly facing floods and sits on a line of fault which puts it at risk of earthquakes. “We are really counting strongly on this funding,” said Dr. Davis. Without that, “the whole population of Saint-Louis and its visitors would be vulnerable.”
The Ministry of Health and Social Services has led questions about the budget proposed at the management and budget office, which did not respond to a comment request.
Funds are sent to local health services through the public health preparation cooperation agreement. The program was created after terrorist attacks of Sept. 2001, to help the nation prepare for biological threats and other emergencies.
Money helps managers manage the impacts on public health of natural and artificial disasters and contain epidemics of infectious diseases. He also pays the salaries of experienced civil servants who help prepare and mitigate public health damage.
The amounts vary according to the jurisdiction. St. Louis and Cleveland each receive around $ 250,000, which covers the salaries of three staff members. Dallas, on the other hand, receives nearly $ 2 million, paying wages of 17 employees.
“Especially at the local level, you do not have many buffers with these funds,” said Dr. Philip Huang, director of Dallas County Health and Human Services in Texas.
If the funds disappear, even large cities like Dallas will be hampered during emergencies. “The smaller the health service, the greater the impact,” he said.
Dr. Davis said its department receives less than 1% of the budget of the city of St. Louis. If the CDC public health emergency funds were to be reduced, as the budget, neither the Missouri nor the city are likely to compensate for the deficit, she said.
“These people would lose their job immediately,” said Dr. Davis about employees funded by the grant.
In Alabama, emergency preparation programs are fully funded through federal subsidies. Tornado, hurricanes and ice in winter can all wreak havoc, requiring the intervention of health officials.
“Unfortunately, we get a lot of practice with these activities because they are not so rare,” said Dr. Scott Harris, state health manager at the Alabama Ministry of Public Health.
In many jurisdictions, officials have relied on hundreds of volunteers to help Vaccination against Covid and Mpox. But they still needed paid staff to coordinate these activities and train volunteers, said Dr. Huang.
“You can't just make everyone appear and say,” Yeah, I'm a doctor “,” he said. City officials check the volunteer references, form them and mobilize them for emergencies if necessary.
In Cleveland, health officials accused of preparation have repeatedly received calls in the middle of the night of hospitals with possible anthrax cases or another infectious threat.
“This is an invisible workforce because they are preparing for the worst scenarios – which often does not happen, thank God,” said Dr. David Margolius, director of public health for Cleveland. “But it is better to be prepared than being caught flat.”
Some officials are worried about the elections that the Trump administration may not renew the programs at the end. But they said they were not suddenly prepared for money, like other CDC financing flows were.
If the congress promulgates the cuts, “we have to dismember to find a situation for them,” he said, referring to the employees funded by the program. “It is simply unfair for these teams and for the residents of Cleveland who rely on these services.”
