San Diego to take a success of $ 40 million in federal public health funding

A planned reduction of $ 40 million in federal public health funding means that county officials preserve themselves to preserve programs that cover everything, from wastewater tests to infectious surveys in diseases in long -term care establishments in the County of San Diego.

The financial blow is caused by the recent national cancellation of the Trump administration of several grant programs, one of which is investing in the strengthening of the public health and another which invests in the elimination of health disparities revealed by the Pandemic COVID-19.

An analysis of experts broadcast among the Comté supervisors this week establishes potential damage. He indicates that subsidies pay directly 91 public health jobs, support programs that provide vaccines to confined adults, support public health activities in local schools, trace residents exposed to measles in order to prevent secondary infections and prevent prenatural infections with hepatitis B.

The programs managed under contract are also in the reticle, including that which administers vaccines in shelters, clinics and individuals confined to the house, and a rapid response team that tests infections as quickly as possible to help prevent the spread of infectious diseases.

Infrastructure financing also disappears. About $ 3 million in funding for remaining subsidies for the new Public Health Laboratory of the Comté have been eliminated. Elizabeth Hernandez, director of the county public health services, said that the purchase of equipment capable of testing local wastewater samples for the presence of opioids had been suspended.

The same goes for automation equipment which can automate the processing of medical tests, a resource that could allow the laboratory to follow epidemics more quickly and precisely.

Hernandez said that the laboratory, which has cost about $ 93 million to build, will still open next month and have most of the upgrades originally envisaged – in particular those that allow the genetic fingerprint of pathogens to allow faster understanding of virus and bacteria strains are responsible for causing it new cases, a function that can help epidemiologists to come and to come from his management.

A plan for the county, rather than local university laboratories, carry out waste routine tests for infectious diseases is still among the characteristics that the new installation of the County Operations Center on Avenue Overland in Kearny Mesa will hold.

But the plans for a mobile laboratory, which could be led to the location of the newly detected epidemics, are now pending.

Likewise, work is underway, added the director, to find other sources of financing or consolidate them with currently vacant jobs, for positions whose subsidy funding suddenly ended. This funding was spread over the current budget year and the year 2025-2026, which gives a little time to investigate the possibilities.

“It has not yet been decided,” said Hernandez.

Overall, the County of San Diego plans to spend about $ 209 million in public health this exercise and $ 211 million next year, employing around 775 people. About 52% of total funding said Hernandez comes from the federal government.

The loss of funding for subsidies sparked an immediate reaction from Terra Lawson-Remer, acting president of the Comté supervisors’ council, which published the cuts on Thursday afternoon.

“We have to call this what it is: sabotage,” said Lawson-Remer. “The so -called Ministry of Government efficiency does not concern efficiency – it is a question of dismantling public systems that serve workers’ families, so that billionaires can claim that the government does not work.”

Kristian Andersen, virologist at the Scripps Research Institute in Jolla, works regularly with the public health services across the country by seeking a variety of viral threats. He said San Diego has become well known for his ability to produce very detailed relationships on infectious diseases circulating in the community.

By working with Scripps and UC San Diego, the region was among the first in the country to carry out an analysis of wastewater, which allowed early detection of the increase in viral genetic equipment which signals a global increase in infections before the appearance of symptoms.

Public health cuts at the county health services, he said, run the risk of judging the critical capacity to identify new threats as quickly as possible, by buying time to prevent epidemics from growing.

“The worst case is that we are starting to see an overall higher burden of diseases distressing the community that is not somewhere, I think we want to go,” said Andersen.

Originally published: April 4, 2025 at 6:51 p.m.