MIAMI (CBSMiami) – The White House says funds to fight the coronavirus are at risk.
“We’ve outlined severe and immediate consequences that the United States will face if Congress fails to provide us with $22.5 billion in emergency funding to fight COVID-19,” said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki.
Psaki said without that money fewer monoclonal antibodies will be sent to states, there won’t be as many tests available to the uninsured and the country could even risk running short on vaccines.
And this would come as another variant, an omicron subvariant called BA.2, is ramping up globally. It accounts for about a quarter of new cases here in the U.S.
“With cases rising abroad, scientific and medical experts have been clear that in the next couple of months, there could be increasing cases of COVID-19 here in the United States as well,” said Psaki.
Currently, the 7-day moving average of new cases in the U.S. is around 32,000 and new deaths are a little over 1,000, according to the CDC.
On Tuesday, Pfizer filed for FDA emergency use authorization for a second booster shot of its vaccine for people 65 and older. The company says it’s in an effort to bolster waning immunity. Pfizer’s CEO spoke Sunday on “Face the Nation.”
“The protection that you are getting from the third, it is good enough, actually quite good for hospitalizations and deaths. It’s not that good against infections, but doesn’t last very long,” said Dr. Albert Bourla.
Pfizer is hoping a vaccine for children 5 and younger will be available in May.
Pfizer says it’s call for a fourth shot was, itself, boosted by real world data from Israel, where a second booster shot is authorized.
The data from Israel shows adults 65 and older who had the extra shot saw COVID infection rates two times lower and severe illness rates four times lower than those who had only one booster.