83亿美元的美国冠状病毒基金将何去何从

83亿美元的美国冠状病毒基金将何去何从

The coronavirus funding bill signed into law by the president Friday puts much more money toward treating and preventing the spread of COVID-19 than his administration requested from Congress last week.

上周五总统签署的冠状病毒资助法案在治疗和预防COVID-19病毒传播方面投入的资金比他领导的政府上周向国会提出的要求多得多。

The Trump administration's initial request — in the form of a two-page letter to Congress on Feb. 24 — was for $1.25 billion in new funds, with additional money moved from other parts of the federal budget to get to a total of $2.5 billion. The amount authorized Friday is more than three times that.

特朗普政府在2月24日给国会的一封两页的信中提出的最初要求是提供12.5亿美元的新资金，并从联邦预算的其他部分调拨额外资金，总计达到25亿美元。星期五批准的数额是这个数字的三倍多。

"It's a significant amount of money," says Jen Kates of the Kaiser Family Foundation. In comparison, Congress put $5.4 billion toward the Ebola response in 2014. and nearly $7 billion for H1N1 in 2009 — though, of course, each epidemic is different and requires a different response.

凯撒家族基金会的詹凯茨说：“这是一大笔钱。相比之下，美国国会在2014年投入54亿美元用于应对埃博拉疫情，在2009年投入近70亿美元用于应对H1N1流感——当然，每一种疫情都不同，需要不同的应对措施。

"It appears to me to be an appropriate number to definitely begin the fight," says Chris Meekins, a health care policy analyst.

“在我看来，这似乎是一个合适的数字，可以肯定地开始这场战斗，”医疗政策分析师克里斯·米金斯说。

So what do taxpayers get for that $8.3 billion? Here are some highlights:

那么，纳税人能从83亿美元中得到什么呢?以下是一些关键：

$3.1 billion for the health secretary's dispersal

为卫生部长的疏散拨款31亿美元

The biggest pot of money goes to the Office of the Secretary of HHS, and that funding is available until 2024.

其中最大的一笔资金将流入卫生与公众服务部部长办公室，这笔资金的使用期限为2024年。

"I thought the flexibility they gave within the Office of the Secretary's public health emergency account was good," Meekins says. "It allows us to not just put money toward therapeutic development — also vaccine development — but also purchase additional supplies that are needed, like masks and personal protective equipment, which for years had been underfunded by Congress and administrations."

“我认为他们在部长公共卫生应急账户办公室内给予的灵活性是好的，”米金斯说它不仅使我们能够将资金用于治疗性开发，也用于疫苗开发，而且还可以购买所需的额外用品，如口罩和个人防护设备，这些东西多年来一直没有得到国会和政府的充分资助。”

Of that money, $100 million is directed to community health centers for underserved groups. "I think that a focus on underserved populations is going to continue to be very important as we see more cases in more states," says Beth Cameron who works on global biological policy for the Nuclear Threat Initiative.

其中1亿美元直接用于社区卫生中心，帮助得不到充分服务的群体。“我认为，随着我们在更多的国家看到更多的病例，关注服务不足人口将继续非常重要，”负责《核威胁倡议》全球生物政策的贝丝·卡梅伦说。

During the Obama Administration, she served as senior director for Global Health, Security and Biodefense on the White House's National Security Council, a position that was eliminated by the Trump administration in 2018.

在奥巴马政府期间，她曾在白宫国家安全委员会担任全球卫生、安全和生物防御高级主任，这个职位在2018年被特朗普政府取消。

$950 million for state and local health departments

为州和地方卫生部门提供9.5亿美元

Of all of the $950 million for state and local public health response that's to be dispersed via the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, half must be allocated within 30 days.

通过美国疾病控制与预防中心分发的9.5亿美元州级和地方公共卫生响应资金中，有一半必须在30天内拨付。

$300 million to buy vaccines and treatments

3亿美元用于购买疫苗和治疗

Will whatever treatments or vaccines that are eventually developed for coronavirus be affordable?

最终能负担得起为冠状病毒开发的任何治疗方法或疫苗吗?

That was a question put to the head of the federal coronavirus task force and HHS Secretary Alex Azar by Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill. at a hearing last week.Azar responded that he couldn't guarantee affordability: "We would want to ensure we work to make [a vaccine] affordable, but we can't control that price because we need the private sector to invest."

这是在上周的听证会上，伊利诺伊州民主党众议员沙考斯基向联邦冠状病毒特别工作组负责人、美国卫生与公众服务部(HHS)部长阿莱克斯·阿扎提出的问题。阿扎回应说，他不能保证负担得起:“我们希望确保我们的工作能让人们负担得起(一种疫苗)，但我们无法控制价格，因为我们需要私营部门的投资。”

$1.25 billion for international activities

12.5亿美元用于国际活动

The Trump administration's original request to Congress was focused purely on responding to coronavirus on the domestic front. As Azar explained in another Congressional hearing last week: "Our activities are really containment and mitigation preparation in the homeland."

特朗普政府最初向国会提出的要求纯粹是为了应对国内战线上的冠状病毒。正如阿扎上周在另一次国会听证会上所解释的：“我们的活动实际上是在本土上进行遏制和缓解准备。”

What may be missing from the funding package

资助计划中可能遗漏的内容

Nothing in this law spells out how much, if any, money will go to reimburse hospitals or patients for medical care associated with COVID-19 treatment. Some announcements came through this week that the diagnostic test will be covered by many private insurers and Medicare and Medicaid, but there will be lots of other expenses associated with COVID-19 care.

这部法律没有规定，如果有的话，多少钱将用于补偿医院或患者的医疗护理相关的COVID-19治疗。本周有消息称，这项诊断测试将由许多私人保险公司、医疗保险和医疗补助计划承担，但还有许多与COVID-19 医疗相关的其他费用。