“As the administration has warned, failure to fund these efforts now will have severe consequences as we will not be equipped to deal with a future surge. Waiting to provide funding once we’re in a surge will be too late,” the White House said in a March 15 news release.
Seven projected consequences from the lack of COVID-19 funding, according to the release:
1. The federal government will not have sufficient funds to purchase enough booster doses and variant-specific vaccines.
2. Providers will not be able to submit claims for testing, treating and vaccinating uninsured populations. A fund that reimburses providers for treating uninsured people will be scaled back in March and will halt completely in April.
3. The federal government will have to stop buying monoclonal antibody treatment, which has been provided to Americans for free. This includes a planned order for March 25. Instead, the administration will have to work with its current supply and cut state allocations of the treatment.
4. The federal government will be unable to purchase more oral antiviral pills, pre-purchase new antivirals, expedite the development of a vaccine that covers a variety of variants and continue current testing capacity.
5. The administration will have to cut back on buying preventive treatments for immunocompromised individuals. The government has been planning to buy preventive treatments March 31.
6. Lack of funding will hinder the government’s ability to identify and assess incoming variants.
7. The federal government will have to scale back on its global COVID-19 vaccination and treatment efforts, which it said would leave a large number of unvaccinated individuals worldwide and open the door for additional variants.
