The jobs of two Vineyard health professionals are in jeopardy due to federal funding cuts, which threaten to hold back local public health efforts.
The two professionals — case investigator and former emergency room nurse Betsy VanLandingham and epidemiologist Leah Hamner — track diseases on-Island thanks to two contracts totaling $133,000 per year. The funds, partially started during the COVID-19 pandemic, pay for work to monitor a database of diseases and stem outbreaks, and to study tick-borne illnesses on-Island.
The funding for their work was cut last month by the federal Centers for Disease Control as part of $11.4 billion pulled back from health departments nationwide.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago,” the federal Department of Health and Human Services explained in a statement on the decision last month.
But the decision is now being challenged in court by 23 states, leaving the future of the on-Island public health work in question.
“I do not have clarity on where we stand with this funding,” Aquinnah health agent Marina Lent told the Times.
VanLandingham’s work is to manage a state-provided database of diseases on the Vineyard, and report to local health officials as diseases pop up. The database was used during COVID to help with contact tracing, but Lent said that it has continued to be a valuable resource. “As we transitioned from monitoring and trying to affect the transmission of COVID more intensively to a sort of carry-on situation, we worked with state funding to figure out how to use this funding to really upgrade our capability in infectious disease or outbreak response, or related matters of disease assessment, prevention and control,” Lent said.
The database would also help in the event of a highly contagious outbreak. “Say we have a measles outbreak — it’s a quick-response situation to connect with all people who may have been exposed, so you can stop the chain of transmission,” Lent said.
Funding for VanLandingham’s work had been awarded through Fiscal Year 2026 through a state grant program paid for by the federal government.
Hamner’s work involves researching tick-borne illness, increasingly important as cases of alpha-gal sensitivity are on the rise on the Island. She monitors the Vineyard, Nantucket, and Barnstable County, and coordinates with wildlife biologist Patrick Roden-Reynolds of the M.V. Tick Program, whose work tracking ticks is state-funded and not impacted by the federal decision.
“[Hamner] has an amazing overview of the Cape, MV, and Nantucket … and makes Patrick’s work more powerful,” Lent said.
According to Lent, what hangs in the balance is whether the Island will build on the public health progress it has made since COVID. “For M.V., it basically involves really solidifying the gains we made in capability and understanding of disease control through Betsy’s work. And Leah and [Roden-Reynolds] are doing amazing work on alpha-gal,” she said, noting the alpha-gal support group founded last year.
“I am deeply disappointed that we may not be able to follow our plans to really upgrade this work,” she added.
Massachusetts is currently among 23 states suing the federal government over the $11 billion in canceled funding. On Thursday, a federal judge in Rhode Island District Court temporarily blocked the cuts.
This is a perfect example of government waste which must be curtailed. Money that was for contact tracing during the Covid flu has now morphed into something completely different. Thanks goodness we now have leadership to stop this government overspending.
“Something completely different,” like research on tick-borne diseases, particularly Alpha-Gal, which is reaching frightening levels on this island. Simply because it was initially for one, now no longer necessary initiative, doesn’t mean that it’s not being used responsibly and effectively. For the many who have in the past, or are currently dealing with the myriad diseases wrought by ticks, this is important work.
Not at all what I said. If this new incarnation of the position was warranted then it should have been proposed as a new position, evaluated as such and probably funded. But to just keep the taxpayers money and apply it to an entirely different purpose could be interpreted as wasteful.
John– not to pretend I’m a republican or anything and play the “whataboutism” card , but where did Governor De Sanctimonious get the money to traffic a group of legal Venezuelans to Martha’s Vineyard ? On an off note, I think the fact that Hess put “Doge” at the bottom of his comment was implying that the statement is the opinion of DOGE and not his own.
I’m sure that people who don’t believe in the “germ theory” hoax are quite happy about cutting programs for research and the prevention of various diseases which are prevalent on the Vineyard. The rest of us are not so happy about it.
Research is a waste of tax dollars.
DOGE
Not a waste to those of us whose lives depend on it.
To Mr Hess….Let’s see how you feel about research money when you have to deal with a disease, or alpha gal tick bite, or some other health concern currently being researched! Don’t think that you are exempt from diseases that are being discovered and eradicated every day. Be thankful that there are scientists who are discovering new ways to treat and prevent new diseases….Research money is important