WASHINGTON (AP) – White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Ja issued a gruesome warning Thursday that the United States will be increasingly vulnerable to coronavirus this fall and winter if Congress does not quickly approve new funding for more vaccines and treatment.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Ja said that Americans’ immune defenses are declining, the virus is adapting to be more contagious, and booster doses will be needed for most people – with the potential for improved protection from a new generation of injections.
His warning came when the White House said there could be up to 100 million virus infections later this year – and when President Joe Biden grimly ordered flags to be lowered in half to mark 1 million deaths.
“By the time we fall, we will all be much more vulnerable to a virus that has much more immune protection than even today and certainly more than six months ago,” Ja said. “It makes a lot of us vulnerable.”
Ja predicts that the next generation of vaccines, which are likely to target the currently predominant strain of omicron, “will provide a much, much higher level of protection against the virus we will encounter in the fall and winter.” But he warned that the United States was at risk of losing its seat in a number of other countries if Congress did not take action in the next few weeks.
In addition, speaking of the need to provide vaccination assistance to other nations, Ja threw in the urgency of the benefits to Americans, even if they never travel abroad.
“All of these options were first identified outside the United States,” he said. “If the goal is to protect the American people, we need to make sure the world is vaccinated. I mean, there’s just no home approach here. “
His comments came after he and Biden addressed the Second World COVID-19 Vaccination Summit and urged the international community not to be complacent about tackling the pandemic.
Here in the United States, Biden asked for $ 22.5 billion in emergency funding for the virus’s response in March, but the money was withheld, first by a congressional sticker shock and now amid disputes over expiring restrictions on migrants from the U.S. pandemic era. -Mexico border.
Ja said he had been asking lawmakers for extra funding for weeks, calling it a “very reduced request” and “the minimum we have to go through this fall and winter without much loss of life.”
The Food and Drug Administration is due to meet in June to determine the specific strains of the virus that the autumn vaccines will target, and Ja said it will take two to three months to develop them. Right now, the United States has exhausted federal funding to respond to COVID-19 to place new orders for vaccines.
“If we had the resources, we would be there to have these talks today,” Ja said. “The window really closes in front of us if we want to be in front of the queue.
“I would say that we are really in this deadline and waiting much longer just puts us behind the line,” he added. “If we are ready to be at the back of the line and get our vaccines in the spring, we have enough time. But then we will miss the whole fall and winter. I do not think this is an acceptable result for the American people.
Ja, who took over the work of coordinating the federal government’s response to the virus a month ago, called the commemoration of the 1 million American deaths from the Dark Day pandemic.
“Each of these deaths is tragic, so many of them are preventable,” he said.
While acknowledging that “reaching zero will be a challenge”, Ja said that most deaths from the virus are now preventable with vaccinations and boosters and effective therapies, the challenge is often to ensure that they are accessible to humans. when they need them.
“We have so many opportunities and we need to develop them at full speed and with full capacity to make sure no one dies from this disease,” he said.
Ja said there is currently no “viable alternative” other than for the US government to take the lead in providing vaccines and treatments against COVID-19, instead of allowing the commercial market to enter into public procurement, as in other medical treatment. He pointed to the global mismatch between supply and demand.
“The US government still needs to play an active role,” he said. “This role will change over time. But at the moment, it’s still critical. “
“One of the things we talked about with Congress is that these tools are great – but only if you have them, only if you can use them,” Ja said. “And without congressional support, it can be very difficult to continue to defend the American people.
On an international topic, he turned to China’s “zero COVID” policy, which has led to dramatic blockages in some of China’s largest cities, disrupting daily life and contributing to global supply chain problems.
“I don’t think it makes sense,” Ja said. He stressed that the US strategy is “very different” with a focus on preventing serious illness and death.
“For me, this is a much more sustainable strategy for long-term governance,” he said. “I think it will be difficult for China to continue this in the long run.
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