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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.”
