Obama has asked congress for a sum of 1.8 billion dollars in order to fund and help battle the Zika virus which has been spreading throughout Latin America from mosquitos. This virus has shown that it may affect the birth of babies and them being birth to abnormally small body parts. There was a similar case a year or two ago of when ebola came along, but Zika is not as serious and life threatening. People may have Zika and not know it, but it has mainly been a threat to women, pregnant women, and women who intend to become pregnant. There is also a fear of this virus being brought to the United States from the down south continent. Obama asks that from the 1.8 billion dollars from congress, that 828 million goes the centers for disease
control/prevention, and also 200 million would go to research for finding a vaccine for the virus. Officials are happy with this proposal for a fund and how quick the situation was alerted compared to the ebola crisis two years ago. How this case relates to government is the proposal, asking of, and requesting of funds from congress to help combat this virus that may be a potential threat to the U.S and it being spreaded here. Obama has asked congress of 1.8 billion dollars that has to come from somewhere, may be taken from somewhere elsewhere, or redistributed from another project or fund in order to help find a vaccine and research for this virus. This is a priority fund for the south continent and also potentially affected travelers who may come to the U.S or come back home to the U.S. My opinion of the 1.8 billion dollar fund to combating this virus is that it should be funded immediately. Like the article said, it is a priority fund for the well beings of the south continent inhabitants and the civilians back at home in the U.S. We are also talking about pregnant women and women who want to become pregnant that have to be scared because of this virus and their soon to be newborn. This is a problem to the future generations of babies, our south continent, and the U.S. Latin America has some of the strictest laws on abortion and that does not help the situation anymore to women who are pregnant with this virus. I believe the funding for the research and vaccines for the Zika virus and health in general is the number one thing to prioritize and I am happy to hear that the alert of this virus and proposal asking to fund it was immediate.
Take a second to contemplate just how much $200 billion actually is. What could we do with this if it we could channel it to be used for a greater cause? Think about eradicating poverty in our country or providing all low-income high-school graduates the opportunity to go to college. For $200 billion, we could literally stuff our low-income schools with the technology they need to keep up with the speedy technical evolution we are wrapped up in. Instead, there is $200 billion going down the drain on nothing more than administrative waste.
In the New York Times interview of Richard Preston, the well renowned author of The Hot Zone, is conducted in order to shed some light on the recent Ebola outbreak and the peaked re-interest in his novel. The Hot Zone is articulated as “thriller like” and “horrifying.” Preston uses similar diction and style choices corresponding with his novel. By choosing to use these specific methods he is advertising and promoting The Hot Zone to the audience members that are interested in reading, and reaching out to those who read and enjoyed his novel. He continuously grabs and keeps the reader’s attention by characterizing and personifying Ebola as the “enemy [and] the invisible monster without a face” in order to give the spectators something to grasp and understand the Ebola virus. Along with characterization, Preston uses descriptions with laminate
Nonetheless there is nothing we can do yet to cure this virus because there is no vaccine, furthermore there are no signs of vaccine being made at all. In order to fight the Zika virus one of the most important operations is to provide a certain amount of funds to laboratories. The only source of money that could be possible to use, is the budget that the government of the United States would contribute to laboratories, scientists, tests, expeditions and researches. However it comes as no surprise that the government, especially Republican Congress is in disfavor to spend more money on these investigations. It has long been known that the Republican Party doesn’t like spending money on public needs and involvement of the government. According to the article “Health Officials Urge Congress to Fund Zika Research” by Donald G. McNeil it says: “President Obama has asked for $1.8
George w. bush and the stem cell research funding ban read more: George w. bush and the stem cell research funding ban. Time, Retrieved from http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/21/legitimate-rape-todd-akin-and-other-politicians- who-confuse-science/slide/bush-bans-stem-cell-research/ 6. *Poulos, J. (2009). Scientific americans. First principles: ISI web Journal, Retrieved from http://www.firstprinciplesjournal.com/articles.aspx?article=1304 7.
West Nile virus (WNV) is a single-stranded flavivirus mostly present in the eastern hemisphere that can affect humans, birds, horses, mosquitoes, and other domestic and wild animals. It has plagued the world since it was first identified in West Nile province of Uganda in 1937 (Sally Murray). Since this time, according to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC), the disease has been spotted in “Africa … Europe, the Middle East, West and Central Asia … the United States … Canada,” and now Central America. Despite its discovery in the 1930’s, the western hemisphere went without the disease until 1999; the first documented case of WNV in the United States was in New York (Watson). West Nile Virus presents a near never-ending problem for the United States because of its similarities to other arboviral disease and its ability to transmit quickly.
Mosquitoes, fever and even death may be some of the things that come to mind when we're asked to think about West Nile Virus. Many of us would consider mosquitoes a small trade-off for what the summertime provides, but what if there were more at risk than a bump above your skin and an itch? In a not so distant past West Nile Virus ascended into news broadcasts all throughout the country and alarming it's residents. Today however, that all seems to be an afterthought. The intentions today are to cover the first found cases of West Nile Virus, the symptoms of West Nile Virus, and finally West Nile Virus' impact on the United States. Through the research here, the hope is that we can all have a better understanding of how West Nile Virus works.
Evaluated in alliance by various entities of the United States federal government, ebola has acted in pivotal fashion to illustrate federalism in its truest definition, that of the above-stated division of power amongst varying levels of government. The Department of Homeland Security and Center for Disease Control and Prevention were of the first federal organizations to take action in early October upon the instance of mandating individuals bound for the United States from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea—the three countries affected most significantly by the disease—be screened for ebola derived symptoms, such as considerably high body temperature. More recently, however, President Obama has taken action of his own in requesting a total of six billion dollars from Congress to fight the spreading condition (Achenbach 1). Citing the security of the United States as his prerogative and priority, Obama has appealed for upwards of four billion dollars in advance for dispersion between the Department of Health and Human Services, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the State Department and the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for
Instead, other diseases, namely HIV/AIDS were given priority. Since it emergence, HIV/AIDS has been at the forefront of the global health policy agenda receiving a significant amount of interest, funding and policy action that is disproportionate to the burden of the disease. (9) Despite issues such as; global health threats from other diseases, varying burdens of disease in different regions and the imperative need to strengthen health systems; the majority of donor aid is dedicated towards HIV/AIDS. For instance, during the re-emergence of tuberculosis as discussed previously; the 1992/93 tuberculosis budget for WHO was approximately $10 million compared to the Global Program on AIDS with a budget of $160 million. (15) In 2003, the Bush government introduced the Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a five-year $15 billion plan and by 2006, 80% of the US budget for health and population aid was earmarked for HIV/AIDS. This shows HIV/AIDS has remained a global health policy priority of actors in global health for a considerable period of time despite other issues increasingly requiring policy attention.
While implementing the Affordable Care Act was one of the most important domestic policy achievements of the Obama administration the repeal and replacement of this act is what the current president believes will be critical in his domestic policy achievements and will provide Americans with affordable healthcare. According to the president and his administration the reason for this order is grounded in domestic policy and seeks to minimize the financial burdens placed on individuals and others affected by the act (Said-Moorhouse 2017). Although, this order cannot change the current law it is inline with the president's rhetoric regarding domestic policy and a way to do this is attacking the issue that the US healthcare spending is the highest in the world and he seeks to decrease this significantly although his exact plan to do this still remains
Believe it or not, but investing money in vaccines actually helps our economy. When a person thinks about it, it makes sense. For every vaccine you receive, the less likely you will have to pay medical expenses if you get sick. And that money adds up, “Every $1 invested in immunization returns an estimated $16 in health-care savings and increased economic productivity” (Bustreo par. 4). Using those statistics, every ten dollars a person spends on getting a flu vaccine potentially saves them one hundred-sixty dollars from doctor visits. Imagine what that could do in third world countries where hundreds of people are dying everyday from vaccine-preventable diseases. Imagine how quickly that money could add up. Not only would it save their citizens’ lives, it would actually help their economy
Description of case study: In 2003, President George W. Bush put forward a plan to vaccinate 450,000 public health-care workers (including military personnel, health care workers, and first-responders) against smallpox in case of a bioterrorist attack on the United States. The plan was ultimately unsuccessful because only 4,213 of the desired 450,000 actually opted to get the vaccine. Inoculation is optional for the targeted personnel (except for those in the military), so with no initial financial protection plan in place, most of the workers decided to stay unvaccinated. This is most likely due to the risk of illness and the subsequent absences from work possible. The Bush administration realized this and instituted a compensation plan for those who opt for vaccination a few months after the first plan was put in place.
George W. Bush put actions into play known as the War On Terror to combat domestic terror and terror abroad but to get the funding for it he needed to cut funding from programs that the citizens need. Years later, many domestic programs still have their fundings cut to put money into the war on terror. In a Times article from 2005, Matthew Cooper and Massimo Calabresi examine how he spent this money. “Bush aims to cut 635 million dollars from the Justice Department program, handing more money to the FBI and Homeland Security.” (Cooper and Calabresi 17). With these cuts to the Justice Department, the people of America will not be as safe. Sure the increase in funds to the war on terror is to keep the people safe but if they cut money from programs like the Justice Department, the people will be in danger from criminals which is counter productive. Bush also proposed a cut to one of the most important programs to the poor population: Medicaid. “Bush has proposed a hefty cut on Medicaid. The federal program that spends $199 billion a year on health-care subsidies for those with little to no income. He claims he can save off $60
Last night, George W. Bush, the President of the United States, announced a compromise policy on Federal support for stem cell research. His announcement made few people happy because it cut a path straight down the middle of the issue and carefully avoided making any significant ethical decisions about it.
For example, during the outbreak in 2008 where an intentionally unvaccinated 7-year-old boy returned from Switzerland with the virus, San Diego grappled with 11 additional cases, costing taxpayers $10,376 per case” (Haelle). This outbreak infected more than 800 exposed individuals, “including 48 children too young to be vaccinated who had to be quarantined at a family cost of $775 per child” (Haelle). Now if there happened to be an infant that was at risk of measles, instead of being vaccinated since they are so young, they would have to be quarantined, in which the costs would be higher now than back in 2008. According to health economist Adam Powell, president of Payer+Provider Syndicate Healthcare Consulting, he states that the cost of the measles “‘can be absorbed by many employees through the use of sick days, employees with lower incomes are the least likely to have sick leave’” (Haelle). This is due to the severity of measles as it can last for over a week in which causes workers to lose days of work resulting in the loss of money that they desperately need “the Affordable Care Act requires that the MMR [measles-mumps-rubella] vaccine be fully covered without patient cost sharing in its provisions requiring the coverage of preventive services (Haelle). Basically, the cost-benefit calculation in terms of money is a good deal as prevention of this disease would decrease the amount of money being lost due to the incompetency of those who deny vaccinations. The measles outbreak has caused a spur in the economic development of the United States as it proves that if amount of measles cases were to decline, the amount of money spent in treating those who refuse to be vaccinated would decline that can be used towards useful
The government has a moral obligation to give the money back to the taxpayers. The government does not have anything to spend the money on now. Just because we have the money doesn’t mean we have to spend it. We do not need to search for programs to spend our money on. Therefore we must give back the money while we still have it.