Analysis says public-health agencies need 80% more full-time workers just to meet everyday needs

Public-health agencies, especially in rural areas, have been chronically underfunded for years. A new data analysis reveals just how underfunded and understaffed such agencies are: State and local health departments nationwide need to add 80,000 full-time employees to reach adequate staffing levels, according to the analysis conducted by the nonprofit de Beaumont Foundation and the Public Health National Center for Innovations. That would be an increase of nearly 80 percent.

"Adding those employees would allow health departments nationwide to better deliver services like immunizations and preventive health measures—but not to prepare for or respond to emergencies, including outbreaks and pandemics," Kate Queram reports for Route Fifty. "The analysis does not recommend hiring specific types of employees, nor does it estimate the cost of adding 80,000 positions—a scope that’s narrow by design, said Brian Castrucci, president and CEO of the de Beaumont Foundation, which advocates for public health. It’s meant simply to provide a snapshot of staffing levels at state and local health departments, similar to the health professional shortage areas identified by the federal Health Resources and Services Administration."

From 2008 to 2019, the number of full-time employees at local and county public-health departments fell by 16%, and state health agencies lost nearly 10% of employees from 2012 to 2019, according to nonprofit Trust for America's Health. "Federal funding for public health preparedness and response programs decreased by nearly $40 million between the 2019 to 2020 fiscal years, and overall funding for those programs has been cut in half over the past decade,"Queram reports. "Those cuts became particularly noticeable in the early months of 2020, following a year of continuous public health issues—including outbreaks of measles and hepatitis A, a mysterious vaping-related illness, prolonged debates about the effectiveness of vaccines and historically high levels of sexually transmitted infections—that were then overshadowed by an emerging pandemic of a then-unknown virus."

It could be difficult to hire more public health officials even if the funding is available; many workers have quit amid the stress of the pandemic compounded by public animosity toward coronavirus vaccination—especially in rural areas.