Bill would create a ‘Texas CDC’ here

Now that the pandemic is subsiding, Texas leaders and public health officials are starting to reflect on how quickly the state reacted, and how it could improve.

Enter the “Texas CDC,” as lawmakers have branded it.

A bill that passed out of the Legislature this session and is awaiting Gov. Greg Abbott’s signature would create the Texas Epidemic Public Health Institute based at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

It would operate in partnership with sister campuses and other academic centers across the state, as well as the state health and emergency management departments.

“We, in recent years, have been become very much accustomed to disaster response for hurricanes and the storms that we endured like Hurricane Harvey and others before it,” said bill author

Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe. “With the pandemic … we found for certain communication efforts and coordination efforts that we were behind in planning at that scale.”

Using the National Guard as a model, the institute would train and maintain a reserve of 3,500 public health professionals and others throughout the state who would be ready to mobilize in the event of a future pandemic, said Eric Boerwinkle, dean of the UTHealth School of Public Health.

Plans call for 100 full-time employees, including epidemiologists and data analysts, to conduct that training, help build on the statewide laboratory infrastructure and improve statistical reporting. Training opportunities for the reserve would be ongoing and include, for example, weekend simulations of pandemics.

The coronavirus pandemic exposed the need for more coordination and preparation, Boerwinkle said.

“Given the time frame and how quickly this came upon us, I don’t think we did a bad job as a state,” he said. “This is going to help us achieve a better, earlier response.”

The idea of the institute first surfaced during discussions about another bill, House Bill 3, which would have set rules for the governor’s emergency powers during pandemics but failed to pass this session.

Dr. John Zerwas, executive vice chancellor for health affairs at the University of Texas system and one of Abbott’s medical advisers during the pandemic, in March had testified on the need for the institute.

“If the Legislature this session doesn’t respond with really some definitive lessons from this, if you will, some things they can actually make happen, then shame on us,” he said. “We should be taking these things and saying there are clearly things we can do, not only as a state, but as a nation, that will put us in a better place to respond.”

State Rep. Dustin Burrows, RLubbock, who co-sponsored the bill creating the institute, said one of its strongest selling points was that much of what the institute would be doing has already been put in place during this pandemic.

“We’re not going to have to create anything new from scratch,” Burrows said. “We’re taking what’s already being done, and we’re just making sure it’s better coordinated.”

Rep. Armando Walle, D-Houston, who last year was named Harris County’s COVID-19 pandemic recovery czar, added that the institute will be especially helpful for rural counties that didn’t have the resources available to larger counties.

“This will complement what both cities and counties do and take the pressure off,” he said.

Funding is expected to come from the almost $16 billion in federal coronavirus relief funds, which Abbott has said will be dealt with during a special session this fall. In the first two years, the institute would require about $30 million annually, then $20 million annually thereafter, Boerwinkle said.

Funding in later years will likely come from a mix of federal and state dollars and philanthropy.

“It sounds like a lot of money until you think about — Google the economic impact of COVID on Texas,” he said. “It’s a good investment for the future of Texas.”

While the funding is a big piece, Creighton said that hasn’t slowed down planning efforts, noting that a national search for a director is already on the way.

Creighton and Boerwinkle said they’re not aware of any other state with such an institution.

“What we’re doing here in Texas, or what I’m hoping we’re going to be doing here in Texas, is unique and will become a model for other states,” Boerwinkle said.