The Biden Administration will shift funds from response to vaccines and treatment after a stalemate arose over new funding from Congress. The White House is reallocating money to buy $5 billion in vaccines for the fall and $4.9 billion for treatments. “Due to a lack of additional funding, HHS is now forced to pull funds from other essential elements of our response to meet some basic COVID-19 response needs,” a White House official said. Action on the President’s request for $22.5 billion in new funding faces inaction from Congress. This news comes as more than 82 million discarded Covid vaccines from December 2020 through mid-May of 2022. The number reported amounts to 11 percent of the total doses distributed by the federal government. Many vaccine providers mention a decline in demand and inflexible ordering mechanisms as a reason for the additional waste.
Today, President Biden announced a plan to vaccinate children under the age of 5. Following Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorization and recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the White House is prepared to start vaccinations on the week of June 20. A recent study reports that the Pfizer shot works well in children under 5. The three-dose regimen reports over 80% effectiveness for children studied ages 6 months through 4 years old. The plan includes securing an ample enough supply, ensuring coordination with care providers, & advancing equity through educating parents and families.
Capitol Hill
COVID funding aid talks have stalled, according to Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) earlier this week. The Biden Administration has reportedly not followed up with any further information, and there have not been conversations about how to offset the cost of the spending bill first proposed by the Administration in early March, which initially totaled $22.5 billion. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) previously agreed to a $10 billion package in early April to provide domestic COVID resources, including rescissions of previously appropriated stimulus funds to offset the bill’s cost. However, after progress stalled, between $2 billion and $4 billion of the $10 billion in proposed “pay-fors” have already been spent, according to a senior Republican Senate aide. Lawmakers would have to renegotiate the bill in order to pass a COVID funding measure this summer. Sen. Burr said he told the Administration he wanted a detailed plan, offsets totaling more than $10 billion, a vote on the Title 42 pandemic immigration policy, and specific draft language. The Administration has not provided any of those, he said.
On Tuesday, June 14, the House Oversight Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis will hold a hearing on “Examining Federal Efforts to Prevent, Detect, and Prosecute Pandemic Relief Fraud to Safeguard Funds for All Eligible Americans.” Kevin Chambers, Director for COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement at the Department of Justice, Michael Horowitz, Chair of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, and Hannibal “Mike” Ware, the Inspector General of the Small Business Administration “will testify on how the federal government can ensure that wrongdoers are brought to justice, wrongfully received taxpayer dollars are returned, and all eligible Americans are able to obtain essential government support in future times of crisis.”
On Thursday, June 16, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee will hold a hearing on “An Update on the Ongoing Federal Response to COVID-19: Current Status and Future Planning.” Witnesses include CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, Chief Medical Advisor to the President Anthony Fauci, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, and HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Dawn O’Connell.
Administration
Treasury released updated Emergency Rental Assistance funding information. In April 2022, ERA provided $563 million covering rent, utilities, and arrears for 158,055 households.
Treasury announced the first Capital Projects Fund to Louisiana, New Hampshire, Virginia, and West Virginia, totaling more than $500 million to increase access to affordable, reliable high-speed internet to more than 200,000 homes and businesses. The state plans approved in this first group will support broadband infrastructure designed to deliver reliable internet service that meets or exceeds symmetrical download and upload speeds of 100 megabits per second (Mbps), speeds that are needed for a household with multiple users to simultaneously access the internet to telework and access education and health monitoring.
The White House released a fact sheet on pandemic response and improving health systems and health security in the Americas.
FEMA has provided more than $2.5 billion to over 389,000 individuals and families to assist with COVID-19-related funeral costs for deaths occurring on or after Jan. 20, 2020. This assistance helped pay for the funerals of more than 398,000 people who died from COVID-19.
CDC updated its COVID Data Tracker. Over 23,430 people are currently hospitalized with COVID, and total COVID-related deaths are at 1,004,732.
The IRS announced that spear phishing is the 8th item on the 2022 "Dirty Dozen" scams warning list and a serious problem because it can be tailored to attack and steal the computer system credentials of any small business with a client data base, such as tax professionals' firms.
The Department of Education announced requirements for the American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund. These requirements are intended to promote accountability and transparency by requiring each State educational agency to post on its website maintenance of equity information for each applicable local educational agency.
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One of the defining characteristics of the pandemic’s early stages was its disproportionate toll on Black and Latino Americans, as reported by the New York Times. During Covid’s early months in the U.S., the per capita death rate for Black Americans was almost twice as high as the white rate and more than twice as high as the Asian rate. The Latino death rate was in between, substantially lower than the Black rate but still above average. Over the past year, the Covid death rate for white Americans has been 14 percent higher than the rate for Black Americans and 72 percent higher than the Latino rate, according to the latest CDC data.
A National Institutes of Health-funded study found that people with food allergies are less likely to become infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, than people without them. In addition, while previous research identified obesity as a risk factor for severe COVID-19, the new study has identified obesity and high body mass index (BMI) as associated with increased risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection. The Human Epidemiology and Response to SARS-CoV-2 (HEROS) study also found that children ages 12 years or younger are just as likely to become infected with the virus as teenagers and adults, but 75% of infections in children are asymptomatic.
Vaccine & Treatment News
A large randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial led by the National Institutes of Health shows that treating adults hospitalized with COVID-19 with infliximab and abatacept – drugs widely used to treat autoimmune diseases – did not significantly shorten time to recovery but did substantially improve clinical status and reduce deaths.
Pfizer announced that it is investing $120 million to boost production of its COVID-19 treatment pills in the U.S. The move will create more than 250 jobs at its plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan, the company said, as it looks to increase production of Paxlovid. The Michigan plant will become the primary global source of active ingredients for Paxlovid as the company looks to make 120 million treatment courses this year, Pfizer Chief Global Supply Office Mike McDermott told the Detroit Free Press. The investment “will allow Pfizer to increase supply by an additional 4 million packs of Paxlovid, allowing us to meet global demand and help increase overall access, said Pfizer spokeswoman Julia Cohen.
Moderna announced that a new version of its vaccine provided a superior immune response against the COVID-19 omicron variant, making it the lead candidate for a booster shot this fall. The company released results on an updated, “bivalent” vaccine that includes both the original vaccine and an updated version specifically designed to target the omicron variant, the company said. A booster dose of the updated vaccine led to an eight-fold increase in neutralizing antibody levels. Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said the updated vaccine “is our lead candidate for a Fall 2022 booster.”
An outside advisory panel voted overwhelmingly to recommend that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorize a COVID-19 vaccine made by Novavax for use in adults, a move that could lead to the addition of a fourth vaccine to the U.S. arsenal. The FDA’s vaccine advisory panel voted 21-0, with one abstention. The FDA does not have to follow the panel’s recommendation, though it often does. Novavax’s two-dose vaccine was about 90 percent effective at preventing mild, moderate, and severe COVID-19 during clinical trials. But, critically, the trials were conducted before the omicron variant, and panel members expressed concern about whether the efficacy would hold up against the current variants. Novavax’s vaccine could appeal to people who have been reluctant to receive one of the mRNA vaccines, as the protein-based shot was manufactured using a fundamentally different process.
Pharmacies, states, U.S. territories and federal agencies discarded 82.1 million COVID vaccine doses from December 2020 through mid-May – just over 11 percent of the doses the federal government distributed, according to the CDC. That’s an increase from the 65 million doses the CDC told the Associated Press had been wasted as of late February. Two retail pharmacy chains, CVS, and Walmart were responsible for over a quarter of the doses thrown away in the U.S. in that time period, in part due to the sheer volume of vaccine they handled.
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