Zeke Miller
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) – White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha has issued a dire warning that the United States will become increasingly vulnerable to the coronavirus this fall and winter if Congress does not quickly approve new funding for more vaccines and treatments.
Americans’ immune protection against the virus is waning, the virus is adapting to be more contagious, and booster doses will be necessary for most people — likely, Jha said in a May 12 interview with The Associated Press Enhanced protection against next-generation viruses. lens.
His warning came as the White House said as many as 100 million people could be infected with the virus later this year and President Joe Biden solemnly ordered flags to be flown at half-staff in honor of the 1 million deaths.
“With the fall, all of us will be more vulnerable to a virus that has escaped immunity much more than today, certainly more than it was six months ago,” Jha said. A lot of us are vulnerable.”
Jha predicts that a possible next-generation vaccine against the currently circulating omicron strain “will provide a higher degree of protection against the viruses we will encounter in the fall and winter.”
But he warned that if Congress fails to act in the next few weeks, the United States risks losing its standing with other countries.
Talking about the need to provide vaccination assistance to other countries, Jha pointed to the urgency of bringing benefits to Americans, even if they never travel abroad.
“All of these variants were first discovered outside the United States,” he said. “If the goal is to protect the American people, we have to make sure the whole world is vaccinated. I mean, there’s no ‘domestic only’ approach here.”
His comments came after he and Biden spoke at the second global summit on COVID-19 vaccination and urged the international community not to be complacent about tackling the pandemic.
In the U.S., Biden asked in March for $22.5 billion in emergency funding for the virus response, but that funding has been put on hold, first over sticker shocks in Congress and now for immigrants expiring during the U.S.-Mexico pandemic Limits and arguing about boundaries.
Jha said he has been petitioning lawmakers for additional funding for weeks, calling it a “very curtailed request” that is “the minimum we need to get through this fall and winter without causing a lot of loss of life.” .
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will meet in June to determine the specific strains of the virus that fall vaccines will target, and Jha said it will take manufacturers two to three months to develop them.Now America has run out of federal
COVID-19 response funds are used to place new vaccine orders.
“If we had the resources, we would be there today for these conversations,” Jha said. “If we want to be at the front of the line, that window really closes.”
“I would say we’re really on that deadline, and waiting longer just puts us further behind,” he added. “If we’re willing to be at the end of the line and get vaccinated in the spring, we’ll have enough. time. But then we’d miss the entire fall and winter. I don’t think it’s an acceptable outcome for the American people.”
Jaha, who took over coordinating the federal government’s response to the virus a month ago, said it was a “tragic” day in the U.S. with a million deaths from the pandemic.
“Every single one of these deaths is tragic, and many of them are preventable,” he said.
While acknowledging that “getting to zero will be a challenge,” Jha said that most people who die from the virus now are preventable, with vaccines and boosters, and effective treatments, and the challenge is often making sure people don’t get infected. can use them. need them.
“We have so many capabilities, we have to deploy them at full speed to make sure no one dies from this disease,” he said.
Jha said there is currently “no viable alternative path” to letting the U.S. government lead the way in getting COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, rather than letting the commercial market handle procurement like any other medical treatment. He cited a global mismatch between supply and demand.
“We have to keep the U.S. government active,” he said. “The role will change over time. But it’s still critical right now.”
“One of the things we’ve been discussing with Congress is that these tools are great — but only if you have them, and only you can use them,” Jha said. “Continuing to protect the American people can be very difficult without the support of Congress.”
On an international theme, he spoke about China’s “zero-coronavirus” policy, which has led to massive lockdowns in some of the country’s biggest cities, disrupting daily life and exacerbating global supply chain problems.
“I don’t think it makes sense,” Jha said. He stressed that the U.S. strategy was “very different” and focused on preventing serious illness and death.
“For me, it’s a more sustainable long-term management strategy,” he said. “I think it’s going to be difficult for China to stay that way for a long time.”
