Santa Clara County health officials are urging families to prioritize vaccinating their children as students return to school and looming federal cuts threaten health care funding.
Dr. Sarah Rudman, acting health officer and director of the Santa Clara County Public Health Department, said vaccinations should be at the top of back-to-school lists. Many county clinics which support vulnerable residents rely on funding from Medicaid, known as Medi-Cal in California, are being jeopardized, she said.
There were 89,953 socioeconomically disadvantaged students in the county in 2024-25, according to DataQuest, which is operated by the California Department of Education.
“Cuts to Medicaid and the impact to the county’s ability to fund our health care safety net will inevitably impact access to absolutely necessary health care like vaccines,” Rudman told San José Spotlight. “It’s increasingly urgent for everyone who has access to health care to go get the shots that they’re due for right now. These funding cuts are going to impact us here in Santa Clara County. They’re affecting our ability to serve people.”
Budget cuts in H.R. 1, or President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” put health care access at risk for about 465,000 Santa Clara County residents who rely on Medi-Cal. Santa Clara County received more than $2.3 billion in Medi-Cal funding this fiscal year, according to the county. County officials anticipate a loss of more than $1 billion during the next few years.
Dr. Vidya Mony, pediatric infectious disease specialist at Santa Clara Valley Healthcare, said access to vaccinations is crucial — especially at the start of the school year. In California, students in transitional kindergarten up to grade 12 are required to be immunized for diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, hepatitis B, measles, mumps, rubella and varicella to attend school.
Mony said mandated vaccines provide equity for socioeconomically disadvantaged groups and protection for immunocompromised people.
“Currently, in our country, we have the largest measles outbreak in three decades,” Mony told San José Spotlight. “We’re going to see all of these vaccine-preventable diseases become real again. We’re going to see a lot of increases in hospitalization, increases in health care costs, increases in complications.”
She said with the looming loss of federal dollars, being vaccinated is a priority.
“If your child is not vaccinated, please go get vaccinated today or as soon as you can,” Mony said. “Reach out to your health care professional and please make an appointment to get those vaccines, because we don’t know what the future is going to bring. It’s the right thing to do to keep yourself and the people that you love around you safe.”
Rudman said Santa Clara County has high childhood vaccination rates because it’s worked for decades to expand access to health care. But misinformation about immunizations adds to the challenge of keeping those rates high.
“It’s becoming increasingly challenging to combat the misinformation about vaccines that’s out there and make sure that trusted voices and accurate information is heard just as loud and clear as false information might be,” she said. “The people of Santa Clara County deserve access to accurate information when it comes to making health decisions for themselves and their families.”
Contact Lorraine Gabbert at [email protected].
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