County Scrambles to Save Immunization Programs as Federal Funding Runs Out

Those funds are disappearing just as the county faces another $21 million hole thanks to a drop in property values.

A vaccination clinic at David Douglas High School in 2019. (Henry Cromett)
By Lucas Manfield

Multnomah County faces the prospect of major cuts to its public immunization programs following the loss of federal funding, according to an internal document obtained by WW through a public records request.

The math problem is simple: Five years ago, the county filled a budget hole by “eliminating most of the Community Immunization Program,” the document says, only to save it with federal funds received during the subsequent COVID-19 pandemic. Those funds are now disappearing—just as the county faces another $21 million hole thanks to a drop in property values as the pandemic hollowed out downtown. (County government relies on property taxes to fund many of its programs.)

The county’s sexually transmitted infection clinic is short $1.7 million, and the primary funding source for the immunization program is being cut by 90%, the document says.

“We won’t—probably—be providing vaccines,” the county’s public health director, Andrea Hamberg, said at a recent statewide meeting, citing the lack of funds.

Hamberg now tells WW that was “hyperbole” and the document was written to describe a “kind of worst-case scenario” if the program weren’t funded.

The 2026 budget isn’t finalized, a spokeswoman cautions WW. “Regardless of the end of the COVID-era federal funding,” the spokeswoman said in a statement, “Multnomah County will continue to provide childhood vaccines and respond to public health emergencies.”

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