Coronavirus emergency bill held up over vaccine cost concerns

[babylonsister]

I shouldn't be surprised.


Coronavirus emergency bill held up over vaccine cost concerns
Democrats are insisting the spending package include significant funding to purchase large amounts of coronavirus diagnostics.
By SARAH OWERMOHLE, ANDREW DESIDERIO, SARAH FERRIS and SARAH KARLIN-SMITH
03/03/2020 04:34 PM EST
Updated: 03/03/2020 05:53 PM EST


An emergency funding bill to respond to coronavirus is being held up by a dispute about overpaying for tests, treatments and vaccines.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday said Republican lawmakers are resisting Democratic efforts to control costs of products that are developed in response to the outbreak.

“Our Republican friends don't want to see the kinds of limitations that we want to see," Schumer said after a briefing with members of the White House’s coronavirus task force, including Vice President Mike Pence and HHS Secretary Alex Azar.

The administration's top scientists have said any coronavirus vaccine could be at least a year away from reaching the market. Moderna Therapeutics is working with National Institutes of Health on a vaccine while Johnson & Johnson has received funding from HHS's Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.

Democrats are insisting the spending package include significant funding to purchase large amounts of coronavirus diagnostics, treatments and vaccine, when it becomes available, which would then be made available to the public free of cost, according to a senior Democratic aide.

Republicans are trying to eliminate the “fair and reasonable price” federal procurement standard for the vaccines and treatments that will be developed and purchased with the emergency funds. “Fair and reasonable price” is a basic standard to prevent price gouging in federal contracts. Without the language, drugmakers could charge the government above-market rates, meaning fewer Americans will have access, according to the Democratic aide.

more...

https://www.politico.com/amp/news/2020/03/03/coronavirus-emergency-bill-119729?__twitter_impression=true

[rzemanfl]

1. I hope these fucking Republicans all die of COVID-19. n/t

[DBoon]

2. They can't take their money with them

we are all equal in death

[rzemanfl]

3. Split it with you. n/t

[Karadeniz]

7. Our bodies are equally dead, but souls vary vastly in Goodness achieved. So, the GOP voting

On health issues, voting equality, gun control, changing the US from a democracy to an oligarchy, tax laws that favor big money...the GOP position is not for the Good. Their stance is lacking in compassion, zero empathy, ungenerous to the least among us, devoid of any allegiance to the Golden Rule.

I would hate to have to experience the afterlife that they are earning.

[Celerity]

5. [phone]

[bronxiteforever]

4. I used to say "unbelievable" to this type of thuggery

but it is just normal behavior of the creeps in the GOP.

[in2herbs]

6. I'm confused. The ACA requires free vaccines for people if ordered by govt agencies. This gives

everyone access to a vaccine w/o cost to them.