As Congress continues to quibble on the Hill, the American people are beginning to realize that the government shutdown means more than just closed national parks, monuments or switching off the National Zoo’s beloved “Panda Cam.” The shutdown is serious business – 800,000 federal employees deemed “non-essential” have been sent home indefinitely with no pay (and fears there may not be back-pay once the shutdown ends) while an additional 1.3 million plus federal employees will see their paychecks delayed during the shutdown.
Most know that a core element of the shutdown is the ongoing battle over the implementation of the Affordable Care Act or “Obamacare.” Yet while open enrollment in the Health Insurance Marketplaces launched with relatively little issue on October 1, the political dysfunction is having a very real and very immediate impact on our nation’s ability to provide care and services to those in need.
How the shutdown is impacting health care?
Beyond economic consequences of the shutdown, federally funded health and science agencies are taking a major hit. A memo released yesterday by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) listed a raft of programs that will NOT be funded during the shutdown. Cuts have been made across the board, furloughing “nonessential” employees and shelving programs for the time being.
National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins has indicated that about 200 patients who otherwise would be admitted to the NIH Clinical Center into clinical trials each week will be turned away, including about 30 children, most of them cancer patients. While stop-gap measures have been introduced to continue funding, the political gamesmanship on both sides of the aisle mean that access to vital, possibly life-saving treatments remain closed to those in need.
With an estimated 46% of staff on furlough, the FDA will be forced to cease most of its routine food-safety operations, including “establishment inspections, some compliance and enforcement activities, monitoring of imports…and the majority of laboratory research necessary to inform public health decision-making.”
If @CDC isn’t active, what happens in the event of a public health emergency?
Yesterday morning, social media accounts echoed a message repeated across health-related federal government websites:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is keeping 68% of its staff – 8,754 people – at home during the shutdown. If a disease epidemic were to occur – with less than half of the disease detectors on watch – who would conduct genetic and molecular testing and sleuthing required to track cases?
Per yesterday’s HHS memo, the CDC’s annual seasonal influenza program that monitors and directs vaccine programs around the country will NOT be funded during the shutdown. The shutdown has also stifled the agency’s capacity to respond to outbreak investigations, process laboratory samples and maintain the agency’s 24/7 emergency operations center.
So far, there isn’t a reported emergency action plan for the CDC if the government shutdown continues. The agency will continue to operate the emergency center for any new or highly contagious infections – but its ability to detect major diseases like MERS virus could be compromised with a skeleton staff. With the CDC website and social media accounts down, traditional media may be the only way to find accurate information about public health.
Shutdown Showdown hits the 21st Century
The last government shutdown in 1995 may have swamped daily newspapers and nightly news broadcast. Today it is social media that is driving the story. Throughout the first day of the shutdown, there was an average of 1,538 tweets per minute from users weighing in, and #governmentshutdown was the number one trending hashtag internationally. The shutdown has illustrated the important role social media plays in the facilitation of ongoing updates and opinions. Capitol Hill may be at a stand-still, but there are no furloughs in social media.