Federal cuts force closure of San Antonio vaccination clinic as measles outbreak ravages Texas

As Texas’ worst measles outbreak in 30 years continues to spread, San Antonio’s Metropolitan Health District will shutter its low-cost children’s immunization clinic due to federal spending cuts, the Express-News reports.

The funding overhaul led by the billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, will strip Metro Health of $500,000 this fiscal year from a $3 million grant that funds the clinic, City Manager Erik Walsh said in a memo cited by the Express-News.

The city can only spend the remaining $2.5 million on “outreach efforts” and “data evaluations,” the daily reports, citing Walsh’s communication with City Council.

“Our disease prevention infrastructure is being dismantled by federal actions, but the need doesn’t go away,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg told Axios of the funding cut.

Metro Health’s immunization clinic administered more than 20,000 vaccines to 10,000 people last fiscal year thanks to the federal grant money, according to the Express-News.

Metro Health will shut down the free clinic, which offers vaccines including the measles-fighting MMR shot, on July 1, officials with the health agency told the daily.

As of Tuesday, Texas Health and Human Services reported 505 measles cases statewide. Since the outbreak started in January, two school-age children — both unvaccinated — have died after contracting the highly contagious disease.

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This article appears in Apr 2-15, 2025.