As government and health officials push for testing as a way to reopen the country, public health labs are struggling to keep up with the demand, American Public Media reports.
Public health labs across the country have been faced with working around the clock to keep up with the number of COVID-19 tests they have to process.
The labs have been operating with reduced staffing levels due to budget cuts that have occurred for years prior to the pandemic.
APM found that several states closed labs and cut employees, and labs that have remained opened have reported concerns about funding.
Director of the Alaska State Public Health Laboratories Bernard Jilly told APM he had to delay his retirement in March to confront the outbreak. He had to find technicians and microbiologists capable of processing the tests. He rehired retired employees and even found college students with lab experience to help. He said his lab has been short-staffed after funding wasn’t kept up with inflation, which left fewer high-level scientists working at the lab.
Jilly’s lab wasn’t the only one facing money and staffing shortages.
APM found that Georgia closed a regional public health lab, cut 23 lab employees between 2013 and 2018 and had difficulty upgrading equipment, according to 2018 budget documents. California closed 10 public health labs since 2003 due to budget cuts. Florida shut down a public health lab in Pensacola in 2015 due to lack of funding. Michigan closed a regional lab in 2010. Iowa furloughed 11 staff members last year and said funding continues to be an issue.
Lab directors told APM they are working seven days a week, shifting all attention to coronavirus and away from other public health tests and looking to hire more employees to conduct lab work. They say the amount of work they are facing could reach a breaking point.
According to a report by the State Health Access Data Assistance Center at the University of Minnesota, 25 states and District of Columbia saw cuts to overall public health spending between 2008 and 2018.
The reductions came despite repeated warnings from government agencies and health experts that the public health system wasn't prepared for a pandemic or biological attack.
"We have clearly demonstrated in recent years that the lab capacity is just maxed out," Mary Denigan-Macauley, director of the Government Accountability Office's health care team told APM. "You can't staff [up] for a pandemic. That's just not realistic.”
Financial records indicate public health spending is boosted during a crisis like the coronavirus and then cut once the threat is over.
"We continue to go from crisis to crisis, instead of appreciating that this is a service that's needed all the time," Frances Pouch Downes, a professor with the Biomedical Laboratory Diagnostics Program at Michigan State University and a former lab director in Michigan told APM. "Would we do that with a fire department?”
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