US Transfers Money to COVID Vaccines As Congress Spreads And Subvariants Spread –

The Biden administration is preparing to divert money for COVID-19 to critical public health programs, including testing, payment for new vaccines and therapies while Congress suspends approval of additional pandemic funding and small variants. Omicron nationwide.

A White House official told the Washington Post The administration is cutting a total of $ 10 billion from existing pandemic funding, half of which will be used to fund updated vaccines – when they become available – and half will pay for the treatments, including Pfizer’s Paxlovid.

This transfer of funds will hamper other initiatives, including plans to conduct more COVID-19 tests in the United States and a plan to provide ventilators and personal protective equipment, one said. Post to Post contributor.

Dr. Ashish Jaha, the White House’s COVID-19 response coordinator, has repeatedly warned Congress that the United States needs funding for COVID-19 to prepare for the coming waves.

“If you want to ask what woke me up at night, it’s to say we’re running out of vaccines,” Jham told reporters at a briefing at the White House on Friday. “We can’t get enough of the next generation of vaccines. We will get medical treatment. “And we’ll finish the diagnostic tests, probably in late fall, in the winter, when we’ll finally have a significant increase in infections.”

The money dispute came after two sub-variants of Omicron, BA.4 and BA.5, which quickly spread across the country. BA.4 accounted for 5.4% of COVID-19 cases in the United States in the week ending June 4, while BA.5 accounted for 7.6% of cases in the same period. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Both subvariants were first identified in South Africa, where they led to an increase in cases in April and May. According to the New York Times. But the death toll has not risen dramatically, and this COVID-19 wave is smaller than the previous wave, Jeffrey Shaman, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Columbia University, told the Times.

The shaman predicts an increase in cases due to BA.4 and BA.5, but does not require hospitalization and death if the United States follows a similar trajectory in South Africa.

To date, BA.2.12.1 still remains the dominant variant, accounting for 62% of all cases in the United States, according to the CDC.

Overall, the continued emergence of new subtypes that can trigger an immune response means that many Americans are re-infected with COVID-19.

Jennifer McDonnell, who lives in Illinois, told ABC News she got the coronavirus in January and thought she could go back to a normal life, especially since she also had full vaccinations and strengthening, but she found to be reinfected. he of COVID-19. just a month after her doctor examined her.

“When he told me I was positive again on COVID-19, I thought I should laugh at him,” McDonnell said. “I thought, you know in six months, I’m okay. I don’t need to wear a mask. We were all a bouquet of sporting events … at parties with no masks, no social distance – nothing – we thought we had time.

McDonnell is certainly not alone in having a recurrent infection. According to the ABC, more than 1.6 million Americans in 24 states said they were re -infected with the virus after states began tracking that data.

“We are taking a very active and aggressive approach to reducing hospitals,” Jham said. “If we refuse vaccination, if we delay treatment, this hospital will start to grow again.”

“We fight, we fight hard and we hold back. “This is not the time to download it and move on.”

Moderna said Wednesday that a new vaccine it is making that combines the original vaccine with protection against the omicron variant is effective. The company said the results of its preliminary study showed that those who received the updated vaccine experienced an eight-fold increase in the number of antibodies against Omicron, according to the Associated Press.

The White House announced Thursday that vaccination for children under the age of five could begin on June 21. Once the Food and Drug Administration and CDC receive final approval, the Biden administration will release 10 million doses of pre-orders at states, pharmacies and public health centers, with more on the way.