© . FILE PHOTO: US President Joe Biden makes remarks about the government’s rise in coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the South Court Auditorium at the White House in Washington, US, Jan. 13, 2022. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo By Jeff Mason and Jarrett Renshaw WASHINGTON () – The US government will run out of stockpiles of COVID-19 treatments known as monoclonal antibodies beginning in late May and will have to scale back plans to get more unless Congress increases funding provided, the White House said on Tuesday. The White House sounded the alarm about depleted funding for the US pandemic response, saying the government also wouldn’t have enough money to provide additional COVID-19 booster injections or variant-specific vaccines without another injection of cash. The White House has asked for immediate emergency funding of $22.5 billion to fight the pandemic, but after objections from Republicans and some Democrats, the money was removed from the last government funding passed by lawmakers last week. White House spokesman Jen Psaki said there would be “serious” consequences if the funding failed to materialize. “As the number of cases abroad rises, it is clear to scientific and medical experts that there could be increasing cases of COVID-19 in the United States in the coming months as well,” she told reporters. “Waiting to provide funding until we are in a worse situation with the virus will be too late. We need funding now, so we are prepared for whatever comes.” A government official said, on condition of anonymity, that the government planned to place an order with AstraZeneca (NASDAQ:) on March 25 for what would likely have been hundreds of thousands of doses of monoclonal treatments. That order would have to be scaled back or scrapped without new funds, the official said. “We will probably run out of treatments for our most vulnerable…Americans by the end of the year,” the official said. “Without additional funding coming soon, thousands of patients could lose access to treatments and these companies will have little incentive to continue investing in the development and production of these treatments.” A program that reimburses medical providers for providing COVID tests, treatments and vaccines to uninsured people will have to be scaled back in March and terminated in April without additional funding, the White House said. President Joe Biden will sign the larger financing bill Tuesday afternoon without the emergency response for the pandemic. Republicans objected to the additional aid, arguing that it was unnecessary, while Democrats did not like how it would be distributed. The money would be used for research and to build vaccines for possible future spikes in COVID-19 infections. Lawmakers plan to reconsider the matter in separate legislation. According to data, more than 972,000 COVID-19 deaths and more than 79.6 million infections have been recorded in the United States – the most in the world – since the start of the pandemic in 2020. The call for funding comes as COVID-19 precautions, including mandatory mask requirements, have been lifted across the country, with cases dwindling and Americans enjoying a return to some form of normalcy. But the White House has said other variants of COVID-19 may be on the way. It said Monday that the Omicron BA.2 sub-variant had been in circulation for some time, with about 35,000 pending cases and more expected. Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data on this website is not necessarily real-time or accurate. All CFDs (Stocks, Indices, Futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and therefore prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price meaning prices are indicative and not suitable for trading purposes . Therefore, Fusion Media does not bear any responsibility for any trading losses that you may incur as a result of using this data. Fusion Media or anyone associated with Fusion Media accepts no liability for any loss or damage resulting from reliance on any information, including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals on this website. Be fully informed about the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest forms of investment possible.
