by Tyler Hale
More than $8 billion has been allocated to combat the coronavirus outbreak in the United States in a new measure signed into law today.
On Friday, March 6, President Donald Trump signed a $8.3 billion spending bill that will provide funding to multiple federal agencies for developing and manufacturing vaccines and other preventative measures.
The number of coronavirus, or COVID-19, cases has exceeded 100,000. According to a Johns Hopkins University global tracker, there have been 100,654 confirmed cases of the disease globally. In the United States, there have been 236 confirmed cases. The highest concentrations of the disease have been in mainland China with 80,573 confirmed cases, South Korea with 6,593, Iran with 4,747 and Italy with 3,858.
Worldwide, there have been 3,411 deaths as a result of COVID-19. Most of those deaths have been in mainland China, which has seen 3,042 total deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins tracker. In the United States, there have been at least 14 deaths due to COVID-19.
The bill Trump signed into law, H.R. 6074, the “Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2020,” will provide funding to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), specifically the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health, and the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund. It will also provide supplemental appropriations for the Small Business Administration, the Department of State, and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The bill has established a “Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund” of $3.1 billion that is designed to prevent, prepare for and respond to COVID-19 by developing medical supplies and medical surge capacity. The fund allows for innovations to be developed to respond to the virus and enhancements to manufacturing facilities to meet demand. In addition, it authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services to purchase vaccines developed with federal funding to respond to an outbreak. This funding is available until Sept. 30, 2024.
The CDC also received a significant influx of funding, amounting to $2.2 billion. This funding will be used for grants/cooperative agreements with states and other localities to “carry out surveillance, epidemiology, laboratory capacity, infection control, mitigation, communications, and other preparedness and response activities.” The funds are available until Sept. 30, 2022.
Another provision of the bill will impact the use of telemedicine services. Under the bill, the Secretary of Health and Human Services is authorized to suspend rules restricting individuals’ access to telehealth services if they are on Medicare.
This modification of services is designed to be implemented in the instance of a public health emergency.
Introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday, March 4, it was passed the same day by the House and passed by the Senate the next day. The bill was a bipartisan effort with only three lawmakers – Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) – opposing the measure.
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