White House: Virus funds urgent

U.S. falling behind on new treatments, lawmakers warned

WASHINGTON — For much of the past two years, America has been first in line for covid-19 vaccines and treatments. Now, as drugmakers develop the next generation of therapies, the White House is warning that if Congress doesn’t act urgently the U.S. will have to take a number.

Already the congressional stalemate over virus funding has forced the federal government to curtail free treatment for the uninsured and ration monoclonal antibody supplies. Biden administration officials are expressing increasing alarm that the U.S. is also losing out on critical opportunities to secure booster doses and new antiviral pills that could help the country maintain its reemerging sense of normalcy, even in the face of potential new variants and case spikes.

Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines and Hong Kong have placed orders for treatments and vaccine doses that the U.S. can’t yet commit to, according to the White House.

The White House this week is mounting a push for doctors to get less stingy about prescribing the antiviral pill Paxlovid, which was initially rationed for those at the highest risk for severe outcomes from covid-19 but is now more widely available.

Paxlovid, when administered within five days of symptoms appearing, has to bring about a 90% reduction in hospitalizations and deaths among patients most likely to get severe disease. Some 314 Americans are now dying each day from the coronavirus, down from more than 2,600 during the height of the omicron wave earlier this year.

With a new generation of treatments on the horizon, the U.S. is falling behind.

Because of the funding delays, officials say, the U.S. has yet to place an advance order, which would help the company scale manufacturing to widely produce the pill.

“Congress must act urgently upon return from recess to provide the funding needed to secure new treatments for the American people and to avoid this dangerous outcome,” said White House spokesman Kevin Munoz.

Complicating matters further are the long lead times to manufacture the antiviral and antibody treatments.

Paxlovid takes about six months to produce. Monoclonal antibody treatments used to treat covid-19 and prevent serious disease in the immunocompromised take similarly long, meaning the U.S. is running out of time to replenish its stockpile before the end of the year.

Administration officials declined to discuss specific treatments they are stymied from ordering because of contracting requirements.

The funding debate is also holding up U.S. purchases of covid-19 vaccine booster doses, including an upcoming new generation of vaccines that may better protect against the omicron variant.

Moderna and Pfizer both are testing what scientists call “bivalent” shots — a mix of each company’s original vaccine and an omicron-targeted version — with Moderna announcing last week it hopes to have its version ready this fall.

The Biden administration has said that while the U.S. has enough vaccine doses for children under 5, once they are approved by regulators, and for fourth shots for highrisk people over 50, it doesn’t have the money to order the new generation of doses.

Republicans have shown no signs of backing down from their insistence that before supplying the 10 GOP votes needed for the covid-19 funding package to pass the Senate, the chamber must vote on their effort to extend the Trump-era Title 42 order set to be lifted on May 23.

“Congress would have to take action in order for the day not to be May 23,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday.

Republicans haven’t said what language they would embrace, but they could turn to a bipartisan bill by Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz. It would delay any suspension of the immigration limits until at least 60 days after the U.S. surgeon general declares the pandemic emergency to be over.