"The Biden administration estimates 100 million Americans may become infected with Covid-19 in the fall and winter without additional funding to help combat the pandemic and buy new vaccines for a fall booster campaign.
The infections would result from a virus that is rapidly adapting and waning natural and vaccine immunity, as well as from lack of money for updating vaccines and for stockpiling tests and treatments, a senior administration official said Friday.
The cases would amount to a million a day over the course of three to four months, according to a senior administration official, who shared the estimate as part of a White House push to secure $22.5 billion in new funding to combat the pandemic.
Currently, more than 60,000 cases a day are reported in the U.S. Roughly 130 million to 140 million infections occurred in the U.S. during the Omicron wave during the winter, the official said.
The Biden administration had initially sought $30 billion in additional pandemic funding to buy more Covid-19 vaccines, drugs and tests as part of a $1.5 trillion spending package, then pared it back to $22.5 billion.
Republicans have opposed providing new funds, saying previous funding rounds haven't been exhausted.
Senate lawmakers negotiated a bipartisan deal to repurpose unused funds to provide $10 billion for Covid-19 tests and treatments, but that deal got hung up in a dispute over U.S.-Mexico border policy.
Democrats have also been divided over a proposal to pair more funding for Covid-19 measures with the administration's $33 billion Ukraine package.
To win funding, the administration is making a push now on Capitol Hill to lay out its projections and detail its contingency planning should the funding not come through, the person said.
Some health experts warn Covid-19 cases could tick up in the fall, especially if a new variant emerges and in parts of the U.S. where the weather is cooling.
The projection of 100 million infections doesn't account for a new variant that could be more dangerous, the senior administration official said.
Without new funding, the Biden administration has been unable to enter into negotiations with Japanese drugmaker Shionogi & Co. for supplies of an experimental Covid-19 treatment that has shown promise, the official said.
Going forward, the official said, the government wouldn't have funds to purchase new vaccines for the fall and stockpile drugs and tests for a potential new wave of cases when the weather turns colder.
The White House would redirect money away from plans to stockpile Covid-19 tests and treatments to buy enough Covid-19 vaccines for seniors this fall if Congress doesn't approve new funding, the official said.
If that happens, supplies of Paxlovid, a Covid-19 treatment pill from Pfizer Inc., could run out by October and November, and the U.S. would have 500 million to 600 million fewer tests than the one billion estimated it would need, the official said.
The federal government also wouldn't be able to roll out a fall booster campaign, the official said.
The official sketched out what that fall booster campaign might look like, saying it would likely begin with people who are at high risk of severe illness and death and then be expanded to the broader public, potentially including children.
In the campaign, the government may offer a "bivalent" vaccine that combines both the original strain and the dominant variant, the official said, making it more effective.
If cases climb rapidly or another variant emerges, large federal vaccination sites are again possible, the person said. The administration is also likely to again call for masking as community cases surge, the person said.” [1]
1. U.S. News: White House Sees Potential Surge
Armour, Stephanie.
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 07 May 2022: A.5.
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