How much virus funding is enough?

Amid much political squabbling over whether the White House is budgeting enough money to fight the coronavirus, medical experts have suggested the creation of an emergency fund.

Dr Arthur Reingold, professor and division head of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California’s Berkeley School of Public Health, told China Daily that an emergency fund could make a difference: "Clearly if there were such a fund, it would make it presumably easier and faster to access resources to respond quickly. … When these things happen … people inject a bunch of money and then, basically, when the problem goes away, they underfund everything.

"I think that fundamentally, core funding for organizations like the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), funding for basic public health infrastructure at the state and local levels in the United States and funding to try and improve the capacity in low- and middle-income countries to try and detect and respond to infectious disease threats are all needed," Reingold said.

US President Donald Trump said at a White House news conference Wednesday that he is willing to accept any amount of funding that Congress approves after he was criticized for requesting too little money, as the virus has appeared on every continent accept Antarctica.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, and some congressional Republicans raised questions when the Trump administration asked for $2.5 billion in emergency funding earlier this week.

At the news conference, Trump said: "If they want to give us more money, we’ll take more money."

Dr William Schaffner, professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University medical center in Nashville, Tennessee, said that the sum the Trump administration is seeking from Congress is "astoundingly large. … But no one in public health would ever say that a suggested sum is sufficient."

Schaffner said an effort to establish an emergency fund was made in the past.

"Dr Tom Friedman, the former director of the CDC, made a plea to the previous administration and to Congress to establish an emergency fund, one that would be somewhat analogous to the fund that FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) has to respond to hurricanes and floods, and natural disasters," Schaffner said.

"The CDC ought to have an emergency fund to be activated, accessed on the judgment of the director of the CDC, so that they can respond to both national and international disease that threaten the United States."

In an initial proposal, Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar requested $1.25 billion in new funds, and $535 million in repurposed funds that were set aside to fight the Ebola virus.

"I understand there is supposed to be a fair bit of rebudgeting from other money for Ebola, so, I guess the question is, ‘Are they robbing Peter to pay Paul and creating other problems in this shift?’" Reingold said.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized Trump for "trying to steal funds dedicated to fight Ebola — which is still considered an epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo — and is indicative of his towering incompetence and further proof that he and his administration aren’t taking the coronavirus crisis as seriously as they need to be".

Schumer said he would request much more — $8.5 billion — in emergency funds to fight the virus.

Trump accused Schumer, other Democrats and his political adversaries of trying to cause a panic over the coronavirus while it was "well under control",

The US has 60 confirmed cases of the virus, 45 of which came from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, which was quarantined off Japan.

One case is of "unknown origin," according to the CDC, prompting fears that the California patient, who had not traveled to a place where the virus was present, could have contracted it by "community spread".

The virus has infected 82,550 people in 45 countries and caused more than 2,800 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.