公众的健康致力于向所有美国人提供潜在新冠肺炎疫苗的官员表示，他们需要超过250亿美元才能实现这一目标，但特朗普政府和国会民主党人在另一个问题上继续陷入僵局冠状病毒救助计划使急需的资金停滞不前。
疾病控制和预防中心主任罗伯特·雷德菲尔德和助理秘书鲍勃·卡德勒克卫生与公众服务部周三，世卫组织发出警告，称这些机构已经耗尽了先前拨给COVID的6亿美元救灾援助，并补充说，他们仍然没有足够的资金来实现向全国每个人免费提供新冠肺炎疫苗的目标。
雷德菲尔德说，在这一点上，疾病预防控制中心没有分发疫苗的资源包括在低温下运输和储存药物的基础设施。
“我们需要大量资源，现在是将这些资源输送到各州的时候了，但我们目前没有这些资源，”他周三对参议院拨款小组委员会的成员说。
但是唐纳德·特朗普总统在周三晚上的白宫新闻发布会上描绘了一幅不同的画面。
亚历克斯·王/盖蒂影像公司
2020年9月16日，华盛顿，唐纳德·特朗普总统在白宫詹姆斯·布雷迪新闻简报室的新闻发布会上向新闻界发表讲话。
一名记者问及雷德菲尔德早些时候在参议院作证时宣誓说，疫苗将在“2021年第二季度末，第三季度”向“美国公众普遍提供”，特朗普认为这是“不正确的信息”。
“我认为他不是那个意思，”特朗普说。“我不认为他——当他说的时候，我相信他很困惑。”
“我看到了声明，”他补充道。“我打电话给他，我说你这是什么意思?我认为他只是犯了一个错误。他只是犯了个错误。我想他大概误解了问题。”
白宫希望在紧急批准后24小时内开始分发冠状病毒疫苗的剂量，各州已被告知在11月前做好准备。但是雷德菲尔德周三早些时候告诉立法者不要期望这么快就能广泛传播。
“如果你问我什么时候美国公众可以普遍获得疫苗，这样我们就可以开始利用疫苗来恢复我们的正常生活，我想我们可能会看到2021年第三季度，第二季度末，第三季度，”雷德菲尔德告诉参议员。
曼德尔·颜/法新社通过盖蒂图像
2020年9月16日，华盛顿，在白宫布雷迪简报室的新闻发布会上，唐纳德·特朗普总统在谈论口罩时做手势。
特朗普在简报中还反驳了雷德菲尔德，他说疾控中心主任“犯了一个错误”，并误解了问题，他说口罩比疫苗更有效。
“口罩是我们拥有的最重要的公共卫生工具，”雷德菲尔德在参议院作证时举起他的外科口罩说道。
“第一，它不比疫苗更有效，”特朗普几小时后在白宫的简报中说。“我给他打过电话。那是我和他讨论的两件事。如果你问他，他大概会说因为我对他说了，所以他不懂问题。我问他两个问题。我们讨论的那个和面具问题。”
总统补充说，“这不是更有效。我觉得口罩有很多问题。疫苗要有效得多。”
雷德菲尔德的一名发言人最初向美国广播公司新闻部发表声明，称主任在证词中旨在传达大多数美国人将在2021年夏天左右完成疫苗接种。然而，一小时后，雷德菲尔德的办公室撤销了这一声明。
目前还不清楚雷德菲尔德是坚持他最初的证词——与总统意见相左——还是会发表新的声明。
与此同时，民主党领导人坚持要进行全面的第五个刺激计划至少2.2万亿美元，但参议院共和党人和白宫要求这个数字要低得多。特朗普周三向他的政党领导人扔了一个曲线球，在推特上说，“共和党人，去争取更高的数字，不管怎样，这一切都回到了美国(无论如何!)。”
安娜摇钱树/美联社泳池
2020年9月16日，疾病控制和预防中心主任罗伯特·雷德菲尔德博士在华盛顿国会山参议院拨款小组委员会的听证会上作证。
雷德菲尔德在证词中说，要让所有64个司法管辖区准备好实施他的机构的分配计划，需要55亿到60亿美元。
Kadlec在食品和药物管理局的潜在授权之前努力生产疫苗，他说他们需要额外的200亿美元来获得3亿剂疫苗。
“我们基本上同时进行临床试验和疫苗生产。因此，如果和何时——无论是两周、三周、两个月还是四个月——一旦临床试验完成，并且科学数据得到美国食品和药物管理局的审查和批准，那么我们就有可能立即获得疫苗，”卡德勒说运行扭曲速度特朗普政府加快疫苗分配的计划。
“我们需要想办法做到这一点。...现在是时候了。周三告诉美国广播公司新闻。布朗特建议，也许国会可以同意一些零敲碎打的方法，但迄今为止，民主党领导人拒绝了。
监督HHS资助的小组委员会的立法者也担心他们拨给新冠肺炎响应的资金被用于其他目的，包括民主党人对该机构的报告的担心争取2 . 5亿美元的合同一家通信公司向美国公众传达了一个关于大流行结束的充满希望的信息。
康涅狄格州参议员克里斯·墨菲(Chris Murphy)在听证会上表示:“今天，我们面前有两位HHS副国务卿，但他们都无法证明该合同是否被授予，为什么被授予，以及授予的原因是什么。”。
“我们越来越不可能知道谁是负责人，”他补充道。“我们有两个HHS最高层的人，他们无法回答关于一份已授予的巨额合同的问题。”
安娜摇钱树/美联社泳池
2020年9月16日，美国卫生与公众服务部部长助理布雷特·吉罗上将、美国卫生与公众服务部负责准备和应对的部长助理罗伯特·卡德莱克以及美国疾病控制和预防中心主任罗伯特·雷德菲尔德博士在华盛顿国会山参议院拨款小组委员会的听证会上作证。
雷德菲尔德说，疾病预防控制中心没有参与该合同或致力于开发其信息，只是被告知该机构转移资金到HHS。
雷德菲尔德告诉默里，“疾控中心收到了HHS和OMB(管理和预算办公室)的指示，向HHS转移3亿美元。”。
“除了资金被转移到HHS以外，我们没有参与此事，所以我假设他们会回到不同的主题专家那里，但我们也没有参与此事，”他说。“你知道，如果有机会，疾控中心显然会希望向美国公众提供准确的信息。”
Trump teases vaccine distribution as public health officials say they need more money
Publichealthofficials working to make a potential COVID-19 vaccine available to all Americans said they need more than $25 billion to make it happen, but the continued impasse between the Trump administration and congressional Democrats on anothercoronavirusrelief package has stalled that much-needed funding.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield and Bob Kadlec, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at theDepartment of Health and Human Services, raised the alarm Wednesday, saying that the agencies have depleted $600 million in previously appropriated COVID relief aid and added they still don't have enough funding to fulfill the goals of getting a free COVID-19 vaccine to everyone in the country.
Redfield said at this point the CDC does not have theresources to distribute a vaccineacross the country, including infrastructure to accommodate transporting and storing doses at cold temperatures.
"We need substantial resources and the time is now to get those resources out to the states, and we currently don't have those resources," he told members of a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Wednesday.
But President Donald Trump painted a different picture at a White House news conference Wednesday evening.
President Donald Trump speaks to the press during a news conference in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House on Sept. 16, 2020, in Washington.
Asked by a reporter about Redfield saying earlier, under oath as he testified before the Senate, that a vaccine will be "generally available to the American public" in the "late second quarter, third quarter 2021," Trump deemed it "incorrect information."
"I don't think he means that," Trump said. "I don't think he -- when he said it, I believe he was confused."
"I saw the statement," he added. "I called him and I said what did you mean by that? And I think he just made a mistake. He just made a mistake. I think he misunderstood the question probably."
The White House hopes to begin distributing doses of a coronavirus vaccine within 24 hours of emergency approval, and states have been told to be prepared by November. But Redfield told lawmakers earlier Wednesday not to expect widespread distribution so soon.
"If you're asking me when is it going to be generally available to the American public, so we can begin to take advantage of vaccine to get back to our regular life, I think we're probably looking at third, late second quarter, third quarter 2021," Redfield told senators.
President Donald Trump gestures as he speaks about masks during a press conference in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House on Sept. 16, 2020, in Washington.
Trump also contradicted Redfield at his briefing when he said the CDC director "made a mistake" and misunderstood the question when he said that masks are more effective than a vaccine.
"Face masks are the single most important public health tool we have," Redfield said during his testimony to the Senate while holding up his surgical mask.
"Number 1 it's not more effective than a vaccine," Trump said during his briefing from the White House hours later. "I called him about it. Those were the two things I discussed with him. If you asked him, he would probably say that he didn't understand the question because I said to him. I asked him two questions. The one we covered and the mask question."
The president added, "It's not more effective. I think there's a lot of problems with masks. Vaccines are much more effective."
A spokesperson for Redfield initially gave ABC News a statement that the director in his testimony had intended to convey that most Americans would complete their vaccinations around summer 2021. An hour later, however, Redfield’s office rescinded that statement.
It was not immediately clear if Redfield was standing by his original testimony -- at odds with the president -- or would be issuing a new statement.
Meanwhile, Democratic leaders have insisted on a sweepingfifth stimulus package-- at least $2.2 trillion -- but Senate Republicans and the White House have demanded that the number be far lower. Trump threw a curve ball to his party leaders on Wednesday though, tweeting, "Go for the much higher numbers, Republicans, it all comes back to the USA anyway (one way or another!)."
Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention testifies at a hearing with the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 16, 2020.
Redfield said in his testimony it will take somewhere between $5.5 billion and $6 billion "to get all 64 jurisdictions ready to implement" his agency's distribution plan.
And Kadlec, who works with the efforts to manufacture vaccines ahead of potential authorization by the Food and Drug Administration, said they need an additional $20 billion to have 300 million doses of a vaccine available.
"We have basically worked to basically do simultaneously the clinical trials, as well as doing the manufacturing of vaccines. So, if and when -- whether that's two weeks, three weeks, two months or four months -- once a clinical trial is complete and that scientific data is reviewed by the FDA and approved, then we have vaccine potentially available immediately to us," Kadlec said ofOperation Warp Speed, the Trump administration's plan to expedite vaccine allocation.
"We need to figure out a way to do this. ... Now is the time," Subcommittee Chairman Roy Blunt, R-Mo., told ABC News Wednesday. Blunt suggested that perhaps Congress could agree to some piecemeal approach, but so far, Democratic leaders have refused.
Lawmakers on the subcommittee that oversees HHS funding also raised concerns that money they appropriated for COVID-19 response was being used for other things, including concerns from Democrats about reports that the agency issoliciting a $250 million contractfor a communications firm to convey a hopeful message to the American public about the end of the pandemic.
"We have two deputy secretaries of HHS before us today and neither one of them can testify as to whether that contract was awarded, why it was awarded, what the reasons for it were," Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said during the hearing.
"It's increasingly impossible for any of us to know who's in charge," he added. "We've got two people at the highest echelon of HHS that can't answer questions about a massive contract that's been awarded."
Admiral Brett Giroir, assistant secretary of Health and Human Services,, Robert Kadlec, assistant secretary of Health and Human Services for Preparedness and Response, and Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention testify at a hearing with the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 16, 2020.
Redfield said the CDC was not involved in that contract or working to develop its message, just that the agency was told to transfer money to HHS.
"CDC received the direction from HHS and OMB (the Office of Management and Budget) to transfer $300 million to HHS," Redfield told Murray.
"We haven't been involved in this, other than the extent that the funds were transferred to HHS and so I assume that they're going to come back to the different subject matter experts, but again we haven't been involved in that," he said. "You know if given the opportunity that CDC would obviously want to put forth the accurate messaging for the American public."
