I am seeing claims from hyper-partisan sites that the chance of contracting COVID-19 is .000001%, and that the taxpayer funds spent fighting disease would be better spent on veterans care.
For clarity: one’s chance of coming down with COVID-19 in the next 24 months is something north of 50%. (Though for 99% of us, we will be miserable for a couple weeks but survive unscathed)
Also: last year, $200 billion in taxpayer funds went towards caring for veterans. By comparison, total funding for the CDC was roughly $8 billion.
It’s also worth noting that because of COVID-19’s (and influenza’s) increased mortality rate among the elderly, a great deal of funding for control of communicable diseases is preventative healthcare for veterans.
I hope this adds some clarity.