National report: Slashed funds compromising disaster response
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A report by two nonprofit groups released Tuesday warned that federal funding cuts are jeopardizing emergency response programs across the country, including one at the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health.
The annual report by Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation said cuts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, combined with reduced state spending, are threatening much of the progress the nation has made in disaster preparedness since the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001.
"We're seeing a decade's worth of progress eroding in front of our eyes," said Jeff Levi, executive director of Trust for America's Health. "When the next disaster strikes, we may not be ready."
The watchdog groups, which issue their national readiness report every December, said state and local programs designed to detect and respond to bioterrorism, disasters and outbreaks of disease are all at risk, as is the CDC's own ability to respond to nuclear and chemical threats.
At Pitt, the CDC has been funding the Preparedness and Emergency Response Research Center in Parran Hall, one of nine such centers nationwide, with a five-year grant providing $1.7 million each year. This year, however, that total was cut to $1 million and next year the funding will be eliminated.
Maggie Potter, who runs the center, said the cuts have forced her to consolidate research projects and speed up the timetable to get them done before the money runs out.
"This is really a tough thing to absorb," she said of the reduced funding. "We are working hard to bring things to a conclusion."
The center is studying the Allegheny County Health Department's ability to respond to a disaster and creating an inventory of preparedness laws in the 50 states to map which agencies are responsible for what duties in a major emergency.
Another study, conducted in conjunction with Johns Hopkins University to examine the economics of disasters, was eliminated.
Ms. Potter said some staffers and graduate students have been reassigned or had their time commitments to the projects reduced.
Beyond Pitt, further proposed cuts could also threaten two CDC epidemiology field officers who are assigned to local health departments in Pittsburgh and Erie and paid for by a CDC grant through the state health department. A third works in Philadelphia under a separate grant.
The researcher at the Allegheny County Health Department has been here three years. But spokesman Guillermo Cole said he's not sure what will happen to him if the grant is eliminated; the state will make that decision.
"We'd hate to lose him," said Mr. Cole.
The Trust for America's Health report highlights several other programs potentially on the chopping block.
Among them are 10 state laboratories at risk for losing chemical testing abilities in California, Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, South Carolina, Virginia and Wisconsin.
Without those state labs, the CDC would have the only public health lab in the country with the ability to conduct tests in response to chemical accidents or terrorism incidents involving chemical agents.
In a conference call with reporters Tuesday, Mr. Levi said preparedness had been improving yearly, but now the government's ability to live up to its most basic public health responsibilities, such as delivering vaccines and medicine during emergencies, is in peril.
In all, he said, federal funding for state and local preparedness has declined 38 percent from fiscal year 2005 to this year and more reductions could be on the way.
First Published December 21, 2011 12:00 am
