The federal government has ended funding for Marion County’s vaccination program, leaving the local health department scrambling for a solution as disease outbreaks continue, a top official said.
“(Funding for) our immunization program was being eliminated immediately,” said Dr. Virginia Caine, chief medical officer of the Marion County Public Health Department, during a March 27 virtual town hall with U.S. Rep. André Carson. “We are now seeing they are cutting all state and local health departments’ budgets by $13.1 billion.”
A $454,000 immunization grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was terminated, the Marion County Public Health Department confirmed in a March 28 email.
The loss will not “immediately impact” the agency’s ability to provide recommended vaccines for children and adults at Indy health department locations and school clinics, spokesperson Curt Brantingham said. It also does not change the cost of vaccine services, he said, which are generally free for patients.
It is unclear if the health department will pull money from other programs to make up the loss of federal funding for immunizations. Brantingham said local officials are evaluating how to cover the loss of the grant and future funding.
The cuts are part of the Trump administration’s clawback of grants this week distributed during the COVID-19 pandemic — though experts say the money is still being used for disease surveillance and vaccination efforts in communities across the country. Indiana is losing about $40 million from the slashes, the state health department told lawmakers on March 24.
“Our goal is to ensure that no direct services to Hoosiers are interrupted,” Indiana Department of Health legislative director Rachel Swartwood said during an Indiana Senate Health and Provider Services Committee meeting.
IDOH did not respond to Mirror Indy’s request for comment about the specific grants being cut.
Neither did the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. But in a statement quoted in the The New York Times, a spokesperson said, “H.S.S. will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a nonexistent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago.”
Carson criticized the Trump administration’s widespread cuts.
“Funding to provide free vaccinations in Indianapolis — particularly to underserved communities that have been left behind by our health care system — is not optional,” Carson told Mirror Indy through a spokesperson on March 28. “The Marion County Public Health Department does an excellent job serving our constituents, but they need more funding to meet our public health needs, not less.”
Caine, meanwhile, pointed to ongoing measles outbreaks in 19 states. Indiana has yet to see cases of the highly contagious and deadly disease, though spread is likely here with the state’s unvaccinated populations.
“Parents, get your kids immunized,” Caine pleaded during the town hall. “We’re just a plane ride away.”
Shandy Dearth, a local epidemiologist, said the federal government has taken “an axe” to public health programs — and the consequences will be grave.
“Some people call this ‘COVID dollars,’ but the money really helps prepare for the next outbreak,” said Dearth, who works for Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health at IU Indianapolis.
Measles isn’t the only threat looming. This flu season has been one of the worst in the last 15 years. Bird flu has also been detected in Marion County wildlife — though no human cases have been reported.
“The local health department needs this money to increase immunization rates,” Dearth said.
During the town hall, Caine said the department has 300 positions funded by grant dollars — and she fears they could be eliminated, along with the $23 million supporting their work.
Marion County is looking for ways to address the “financial consequences,” she told Carson’s constituents.
“I think we can do it in a thoughtful manner,” Caine said, in part, “where we’re not causing any unintended harm, any unintended consequences, and also the possibility that our financial costs may go off the charts if we don’t do it correctly.”
Mirror Indy reporter Mary Claire Molloy covers health. Reach her at 317-721-7648 or email maryclaire.molloy@mirrorindy.org. Follow her on X @mcmolloy7.