Earlier blog posts have called attention to decreases in public health funding over the last five to eight years as we put more time and distance from the post-9/11 era of robust funding for public health nationally. Now there is a letter from the United States Senate Democrats asking that the president request additional appropriations for coronavirus preparations and epidemiological monitoring that is occurring nationwide.
Using emergency authority, you can move federal funding around within and between departments, much like what the president is doing with taking billions of dollars in Defense Department appropriations to provide for more border wall funding. Steps like this are available in emergency situations before new spending authority is provided. We have time now to provide more resources to state and local public health.
While the letter above means borrowing more money, in this case, it is money well spent in hopefully early detection and treatment to prevent an epidemic here in the United States.
