The cuts impacting everything from staffing to outreach efforts for San Antonio’s health department.
SAN ANTONIO — The Centers for Disease Control is cutting $500,000 from a federal grant meant to help with youth vaccination efforts, outreach and evaluation in San Antonio, officials warned city leaders in a memo.
The memo, sent from City Manager Erik Walsh to Mayor Ron Nirenberg and members of City Council on Monday, said the $2.5 million that Metro Health is still set to receive for the year starting July 1, 2025, “will not be able to cover direct vaccine clinical operators as allowed in the past.” The memo was also sent to Metro Health Director Claude Jacob and other city personnel.
Walsh wrote that the Federal Immunization Vaccines for Children Grant allowed health staff to administer more than 22,400 vaccines while helping 9,300 San Antonians in Fiscal Year 2024. As a result of the cut in federal funds, however, “Metro Health will no longer administer vaccines at the clinic.”
The cut also forces Metro Health to cut five positions come June 30.
But the decrease in federal allocations for public health efforts continue from there, Walsh wrote. According to his memo, a COVID-19 Mobile Vaccination Grant totaling more than $25 million meant to last until June 30, 2025, was terminated altogether, forcing the health department to let go of 23 temporary workers.
Local teams focusing on STD afdnd HIV intervention; epidemiology services; and mental and behavioral health services are also being impacted.
The state notified Metro Health it was rescinding an amount of $571,977 meant to pay for city health workers tasked with conducting syphilis investigations and thousands of infection reports. And Texas health officials also “advised Metro Health to pause all activities” related to a $2 million grant allocated to flu surveillance, educational campaigns and more.
Walsh’s memo ends by saying that behavioral health efforts are also being impacted after the Texas Health and Human Services Commission directed San Antonio leaders to “discontinue enrolling new clients” in mental health programs augmented by grant money.