WASHINGTON (AP) — The administration of President Joe Biden said Wednesday that a funding shortage is forcing him to redirect more than $10 billion in coronavirus aid as he tries to find fresh resources to secure the next generation of vaccines and treatments for some high-risk Americans.
The White House said it was forced to make the tradeoffs, which it called “unacceptable,” due to inaction by Congress.
He argued that he was left with “no other option” than to reduce orders for rapid home tests, which have enabled the national manufacture of easy diagnostic tests. It is also cutting funding for research and development of new COVID-19 vaccines and limiting orders for personal protective equipment (PPE), in an effort to keep some stockpiles of vaccines and treatments for Americans as the pandemic approaches. winter.
Even then, the Democratic president’s administration added, there will only be enough money available to give some people treatments and vaccines. He asked Congress to provide him with enough money to secure doses for everyone who might want or need them.
“The government has to act because Congress will not,” the White House said in a statement. “These trade-offs that we have been forced into due to Congress will have serious consequences on the development of next-generation vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics, domestic vaccine production capacity, PPE stockpiling, and procurement of tests and testing supplies. for community and federally qualified health centers.”
It was not immediately clear which vaccines and treatments the government is seeking to secure with the limited funding, for example, whether the administration was placing orders for potential multivalent vaccines that would protect against the original strain of COVID-19 and offer specific protection against some variants.
The White House also did not say how many doses of vaccine would be procured, citing procurement requirements as unclear.
The executive branch said that the movements announced on Wednesday will mean the redirection of 5,000 million dollars to buy vaccines against COVID-19 for the fall, 4,900 million for 10 million courses of Paxlovid oral antiviral treatment and 300 million for the purchase of treatments. additional with monoclonal antibodies.
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