MILK MONEY: As avian flu tears through California’s dairy herds and sickens some workers, health officials are racing to prevent and treat it — using pandemic-era funding that was almost slashed from the state budget. Back in May, facing a multibillion-dollar budget deficit, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed cutting $300 million per year from the Future of Public Health Fund, the state’s first and only ongoing source of money for public health that wasn’t earmarked for a specific disease. It had already been used to hire 900 county public health workers around the state, with plans for 1,200 total. The final budget restored most of those funds after pressure from public health officials — who cited the threat of avian flu as they made their case early in the year. “Just emerging from one pandemic and now dealing with avian influenza, a virus that the CDC says has pandemic potential … now is the time to stay committed to funding our local health departments, not to cut funding,” Aimee Sisson , a prominent public health officer from Yolo County, said at a press conference in May. As the country’s largest dairy producer, it wasn’t exactly a shock when California cows started testing positive for avian flu at the end of August. The virus had been circulating in lactating cows throughout the country since March, so it was only a matter of time before it reached the Golden State. Spread through humans had been low, and it continues to be. So far, H5N1 has infected 11 people and the herds at 120 dairy farms. Still, avian flu has long been a pandemic concern among public health officials, and there's a huge incentive to get it under control before flu season kicks into gear. Health officials are holding weekly calls with local health departments and agriculture departments, getting PPE onto farms before their cows test positive, conducting outreach to workers about why they should wear gowns and face shields when milking cows, administering treatment with antivirals and quickly sharing information about sick cows or exposed workers. But all that costs money. The state is drawing from the public health funding to run a pandemic-era IT system that consolidates information for local health departments from other systems, like disease surveillance and vaccine registries. That’s also supported by federal dollars, which Dr. Erica Pan, the state epidemiologist, says will end in a few years. “We're really looking at, ‘how do we continue to sustain things?’” Pan told Playbook. As H.D. Palmer, spokesperson for the state’s Department of Finance, points out, this year’s budget “maintained more than $276 million, for this year and ongoing, for state and local public health infrastructure,” and it’s too soon to know anything about next year’s budget. But more federal help is on the way. Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC, said the agency is about to deploy more resources to the state. “We're going to be adding some folks in to be able to support the work that California is doing in contact tracing and infection control and all of that good stuff,” he said in an interview. — with help from David Lim IT’S THURSDAY AFTERNOON. This is California Playbook PM, a POLITICO newsletter that serves as an afternoon temperature check on California politics and a look at what our policy reporters are watching. Got tips or suggestions? Shoot an email to rbluth@politico.com or tkatzenberger@politico.com.
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