White House Covid-19 Funds Running Out — Here’s What That Means For Treatments, Tests And Vaccines

Topline

The White House’s Covid-19 funding is running dry after Congress declined to approve additional money, which is set to have a widespread impact on Covid-19 vaccines, tests, treatments and research—with cuts already set to happen as soon as next week.

President Joe Biden arrives to speak at the White House complex in Washington on Nov. 3, 2021.

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Key Facts

The White House does not have enough funding to purchase more monoclonal antibody treatments, so its allocation to states will be cut by 30% starting next week, and a planned shipment of additional treatments on March 25 has been canceled.

Uninsured Americans will no longer receive free Covid-19 tests and treatments as of March 25, and vaccination coverage for the uninsured will end April 5.

The White House will have to scale back a planned purchase of preventative treatments for immunocompromised Americans on March 31, and will likely run out of treatments by the end of the year without additional funding.

As Pfizer reportedly plans to ask for approval of a fourth Covid-19 shot for over-65s, the White House said it doesn’t have the resources to purchase enough additional booster shots for all Americans, including any updated shots designed to combat future variants.

The White House will no longer be able to purchase antiviral pills to treat Covid-19—which means they won’t be available at all if supplies run out, as Politico notes the pills and many other Covid-19 treatments are only authorized for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration, and thus can’t be sold commercially.The White House will no longer be able to purchase antiviral pills to treat Covid-19—which means they won’t be available at all if supplies run out, as Politico notes the pills and many other Covid-19 treatments are only authorized for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration, and thus can’t be sold commercially.

Covid-19 testing capacity is set to be “significantly diminished” after June, as the White House can no longer support manufacturers—and longer term, the funding cuts will affect research and monitoring of new variants as well as global vaccination efforts.

Big Number

$15.6 billion. That’s how much the White House and Congress had planned to allocate to Covid-19 funding as part of its $1.5 trillion spending bill. The pandemic funds were cut from the final package, however, after Republicans wanted to pay for the aid by taking away pandemic funding that had already been allocated to states and localities but hadn’t been spent yet, Politico reports.

What To Watch For

Whether Congress will pass additional funding to stave off some of the potential consequences. The White House is working with congressional Democrats on a standalone funding bill that would just focus on Covid-19, NPR reports, but Republicans heavily oppose it, making the likelihood of it passing the Senate slim. Republicans claim the White House still has Covid-19 funds that it hasn’t spent yet, rendering more funding unnecessary, and have asked the Biden administration to detail how it’s spent the funds Congress has previously allocated for Covid-19.

What We Don’t Know

Whether Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths will soon go up in the U.S. again, which would worsen the impact of the government’s cuts. Cases, hospitalizations and deaths are surging again across Europe—with Germany and Austria recording record high infection rates—which has sparked concerns the U.S. is likely to follow, as U.S. Covid-19 trends typically trail those in Europe by a few weeks. Dr. John Swartzberg, an infectious disease expert at the University of California at Berkeley, told Forbes Congress’ lack of funding would hurt the U.S.’s preparedness for another surge, along with factors like a lack of “readily available” treatments that will be made worse as the funding cuts continue. While many Americans have some degree of immunity through vaccination or prior infection, which could help in terms of another surge, Swartzberg noted that immunity is also waning and the U.S. has lower booster shot rates than European countries—and “too many Americans are behaving as if there is no pandemic.”

Key Background

Congress’ failure to fund the federal government’s Covid-19 response stymies the Biden administration’s recently unveiled plan to respond to the pandemic as it enters its third year. The strategy included aggressive proposals to ramp up manufacturing of Covid-19 tests and vaccines, stockpile treatments for future surges and increase surveillance efforts to catch new variants as they arise—all of which were dependent on additional funding. President Joe Biden said in his State of the Union address the administration would “stay on guard” regarding Covid-19 even as cases have gone down, announcing an expansion of free at-home tests for Americans and a “Test to Treat” initiative providing no-cost antiviral pills at pharmacies that will also be hamstrung by a lack of funding. Some aspects of the plan weren’t dependent on Congress, however—the Biden administration unveiled new federal guidance for ventilation on Thursday as part of its strategy, for instance.

Additional reporting by Robert Hart.