Not for nothing that "the cure for cancer" is used interchangably with "solving world hunger" or "world peace" as a euphemism for very hard, intractable problems. This, on the other hand is something we are reasonably sure we'll have a vacinne for in a years time and we have the choice have having many millions of people worldwide die in the interim or just a few thousand. It's a pretty bounded problem with pretty defined outcomes and in that kind of situation it makes perfect sense to spend money to achieve that outcome. As an FYI, the NIH budget is about $40B every year, year after year. Researching and fighting disease is just hard and expensive. The slow pace of results reflects that as much as a lack of resources.
What in the world ever led you to believe they'd appropriate funds to buy stock to support the market? If you really want to know the specifics, the actual text of the law can be accessed at congress.gov. But some basic civics refreshers would probably also be pretty beneficial.
market ready to take small dive now thurday, just to remind folks that it can and does go down today so that a rebound will be possible when NFP comes around tomorrow.....
Consider the total impact. The beer virus has been around for months. It's "only" killed (I feel sorry for the people affected, but trying to put things into perspective) around 3,300 people according to this data: https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6 According to the same data, more than half the known cases have already fully recovered and as I have pointed out before, there are likely tens if not hundreds of thousands of more cases where people caught the virus and fully recovered on their own without medical help -- the undocumented recovery cases. There's also going to be some cases where people died of the CV that were also not documented, but I suspect that's a much, much smaller group as most people try to get medical help once they are on the brink of death...although in some poor countries, that's not an option. According to the CDC: "CDC estimates that influenza has resulted in between 9 million – 45 million illnesses, between 140,000 – 810,000 hospitalizations and between 12,000 – 61,000 deaths annually since 2010." The CV is not going to be around forever. Drug companies will find a cure on their own as there is enough profit incentive to do so. The only difference is that CNN does not spend an hour talking about every single person who has died or even caught the flu. Where if one person gets the CV, it's national news because it also helps serve their intended purpose of causing panic (good for ratings) and hopefully weaken the economy to fulfill a desirable political outcome in November.
Laws can change. Japan has been buying ETFs for years. https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/BOJ-is-top-10-shareholder-in-40-of-Japan-s-listed-companies
Same risks with flu. Show me the data where this is far more deadly and contagious than a flu. I suspect no one will be talking about this 3 months from now except as an excuse for lowered earnings.
How many people under 15 have been killed by the CV? The mortality rate is higher for this because there is no vaccine so it hits elderly people a lot harder than the flu. The mortality rate for the flu would be a lot higher too if there was no vaccine to keep the elderly people from getting sick. Again, not trying to downplay the tragedy of someone dying from any illness, but from what we know, it doesn't look like the end of the world is next week.
There are really only a handful of worthwhile government functions that have a direct and meaningful impact on our civilization, our society, and our welfare. Disaster response and disease prevention/mitigation are two of them.
It's definitely a bit its only going to kill the old and sick, which is great unless your an old or sick person. Younger people with no obvious issues are dying aswell not as many. America 10% pay for treatment or tough it out then die trying, great country.
In America, if you show up to any Hospital Emergency Room, you will get treatment regardless of your insurance status or ability to pay. In fact it is a Federal Law called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. In fact, the Hospital can be sued for refusing to treat you. In terms of ongoing medical care and any doctor visits, if you're 65 or over in the United States, or if you are under 65 and disabled, you are covered under the government sponsored program called Medicare. Medicare Part A provides free hospitalization coverage to individuals who are 65 years or older, regardless of income. Medicare Part B covers medically necessary services and equipment, including doctor’s office visits, lab work, x-rays, wheelchairs, walkers, and outpatient surgeries. If you are under 65 in the United States and are poor or have limited income, your medical care is covered under the government sponsored program called Medicaid. It's been that way since 1965.