Rhode Island was among a group of states that filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island today against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for the premature termination of grants that support critical public health services.
"Investments in public health make our communities healthier and safer, and they save lives," said Director of Health Jerry Larkin, MD. "These grants support critical work to prevent deadly infectious diseases, ensure people are vaccinated, prevent outbreaks of foodborne illness, modernize many of our core laboratory functions, Medical Examiner's Office, and public health data systems, amongst other work. These are public health services that Rhode Islanders paid for and deserve. I want to thank the legal team and program staff at RIDOH and the Attorney General's Office for all the work that went into today's filing."
Today's filing was co-led by Attorney General Peter F. Neronha and attorneys general from other states. In coordination with the Office of Governor Dan McKee and the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS), the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) provided detailed affidavits for the filing, outlining the impact of these terminations. With this lawsuit, Attorney General Neronha and the coalition are seeking a temporary restraining order to halt the terminations of these grants.
Last week RIDOH, received notice of the termination of four grants from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that represented roughly $31 million in public health funding. These grants originally came to RIDOH during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, as they were renewed over time, their scopes were expanded by CDC to prepare Rhode Island for future pandemics and strengthen the public health system in Rhode Island. For example, these grants support:
--Surveillance, outbreak response, engagement in care, and other infectious disease prevention and control activities. This decreases rates of infectious diseases in Rhode Island, including respiratory pathogens, foodborne illnesses, HIV, hepatitis C, congenital syphilis, syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, and tuberculosis. It also helps prevent disease clusters and outbreaks. --Occupational health, biosafety risk activities, biosafety training, and other functions. This funding also supports some core laboratory functions and administration as well as the replacement of obsolete laboratory equipment and systems (for example, a modernized Laboratory Information Management System). --The public health infrastructure that surrounds vaccination in Rhode Island. This includes vaccination clinics, partnerships with community organizations to promote vaccination and increase vaccine confidence, proper vaccine storage, and upgrading our immunization registry. This work and these systems help Rhode Island maintain some of the highest vaccination rates in the country across all vaccine-preventable diseases (e.g., measles and other childhood vaccines, and seasonal vaccinations).
RIDOH will continue to coordinate with the Office of the Rhode Island Attorney General, the Governor's Office, and EOHHS as this suit moves forward.
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