President Biden on Wednesday said the government is running out of money for critical COVID-19 treatments, tests and boosters shots, trying to spur Capitol Hill talks on his stalled request for $22 billion in emergency funds.
Mr. Biden, speaking from the White House, said the onus is on lawmakers to free up the money he needs to treat the virus as a manageable problem as the U.S. enjoys hard-won immunity. Right now, cases, hospitalizations and deaths are at some of their lowest levels of the pandemic.
“We were able to do it because Congress worked with us and provided us the necessary funding. But now, just as we’ve reached the critical turning point in this fight, Congress has to provide the funding America needs to continue to fight COVID-19,” Mr. Biden said.
Mr. Biden said they had to cancel purchases of monoclonal antibodies that can stave off hospitalization and will run out of money for them by May. He also said they had to scale back purchases of drugs that help immunocompromised patients who don’t benefit from vaccines.
“This isn’t partisan. It’s medicine,” he said.
Perhaps worst of all, Mr. Biden said, the government won’t be able to mass-purchase another round of shots if regulators recommend an additional booster for the general population.
The White House says it has enough vaccines in inventory for people over 50 and the immunocompromised, both of whom were cleared for an additional booster on Tuesday. Mr. Biden, 79, got his fourth COVID-19 shot immediately following his speech.
Mr. Biden is attempting to pivot to a new phase in which the coronavirus is no longer a hair-on-fire crisis. His team frequently points to the availability of vaccines and boosters that can stave off severe disease and treatments.
Yet Mr. Biden faces multiple headwinds. A fast-moving BA.2 variant is now the dominant strain in the U.S. after beating up Europe even as Mr. Biden struggles to procure the money he wants from Congress.
Democratic leaders are negotiating with Republicans, who say the administration should tap into leftover virus funding or offset any new spending.
Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah and other Republicans said they were willing to negotiate but they needed an accounting of COVID-19 funds that haven’t been spent.
“The differences are narrowing, but we haven’t eliminated them,” Mr. Romney said.
SEE ALSO: White House launches COVID.gov, a one-stop shop for coronavirus tools, info
The White House balked at the idea the money needs to be reprogrammed or offset elsewhere.
“This is an emergency funding request, and there has not been a need for offsets for an emergency funding request. So, we fully believe that Congress should act, they should fund the $22.5 billion, and there should be no need for offsets,” White House COVID-19 Coordinator Jeff Zients said last week.
Mr. Biden also announced the launch of COVID.gov, a website that will serve as a “one-stop shop” for information on testing and vaccination sites and test-to-treat centers that provide infected people with groundbreaking antiviral treatments.
The White House said the U.S. needs a web-based clearinghouse because there are 90,000 vaccination sites and 2,000 sites where people can receive treatment pills after testing positive.
The website’s landing page includes a search box that lets users input their U.S. counties to find information on masks, treatment, vaccines and testing. The search results instantly tell users if the CDC-defined level of spread is low, medium or high, with universal masking recommended in high zones.
At the White House, Mr. Biden took his fourth shot pretty easily. “It didn’t hurt a bit,” he said when the White House medical team administered the shot right after his speech.
The president received the shot one day after the Food and Drug Administration authorized an additional booster from Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna for those age 50 or older and younger persons who are immunocompromised. The additional shot should come at least four months after the initial booster.
Regulators cited data from Israel that found the antibody response from the third shot starts could begin to wane after four months. They don’t want older Americans or the vulnerable to risk bad outcomes from the virus, especially if there is another surge. The jury is out on whether younger, healthier persons should get another booster anytime soon.
The FDA said it is tracking the data in real-time and will convene advisers on April 6 to discuss the path forward on boosters and whether a variant-specific shot is needed.
Roughly two-thirds of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated with a primary series of shots and 45% of vaccinated Americans, or about 97 million people, have gotten a booster, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• Haris Alic contributed to this report.
For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.