Despite the lifting of mask mandates and other restrictions, the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over. During the one-week period that ended Monday, more than 1,000 deaths per day were attributed to coronavirus in the United States.
Congress, however, is apparently ready to act as if the emergency has passed. The result would hamper the continuing federal response to COVID-19 and demonstrate that our leaders have learned little from the past two years.
On Monday, Biden administration officials said they are out of money for federally funded COVID tests, treatments and vaccines. The White House has secured funding to vaccinate children under 5 years old and offer an additional booster shot to the immunocompromised, but measures beyond that would require approval from Congress.
Of the $1.9 trillion in last year’s American Rescue Plan, $300 million remains unobligated; $240 billion of that is earmarked for cities and states, and the remaining $60 billion is left for specific emergency use by agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Many states, such as Washington, are using their funds to fight COVID; others, such as Alabama, are using them to build prisons.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi supported a $15 billion spending bill to provide testing, treatment such as antiviral pills or new monoclonal antibody measures, and vaccines. That plan received pushback from both sides of the aisle; some Republicans insisted on spending offsets to pay for the bill, and some Democrats opposed the fact that the money would come out of stimulus funds for state governments.
The result is a stalemate that leaves the nation vulnerable to the next wave of coronavirus. Meanwhile, Congress also is failing to prepare for the next pandemic.
The PREVENT Pandemics Act would call for a commission to study the government’s failure during the early days of the pandemic, establish a White House office for pandemic preparedness and require more information sharing between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state and local health departments.
Co-authored by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., it is the result of a year of Senate negotiations and passed out of committee in a bipartisan 20-2 vote. But it allocates $2 billion for its ambitious goals — a lot of money but a pittance compared with the impact of a pandemic.
“Time after time, throughout the past two years we have seen how our response to this pandemic could have, and should have, been better,” Murray told Vox.com. “But getting the PREVENT Pandemics Act across the finish line is just one part of the equation: we also need to pass the COVID-19 emergency supplemental funding so that our response right now doesn’t falter, and we absolutely need sustained, annual funding for public health.”
The need to invest in public health should be the lasting lesson from the pandemic. In 2018, then-President Donald Trump disbanded the National Security Council office charged with preparing for a pandemic, and he slashed staffing at a CDC agency operating inside China, where COVID-19 originated. Frugality often has exorbitant costs.
In other words, now is not the time for Congress to halt funding for COVID vaccines and treatments. The end of mask mandates does not mean we are free from coronavirus, nor does it mean that such mandates will not return.
While free vaccines have been far from free — they are paid for by taxpayers — widespread access to those vaccines is essential for keeping COVID-19 at bay.
