Biden administration officials were working on Tuesday to preserve funding for key parts of the federal coronavirus response in negotiations with House Republicans on a deal to raise the debt ceiling, senior government officials say. administration familiar with the talks.
Administration officials are seeking to protect about $5 billion in funding for a program to develop the next generation of coronavirus vaccines and treatments. They are also seeking to preserve over $1 billion in funding for an initiative to offer free coronavirus vaccines to uninsured Americans, officials said.
Funds the administration is using for both programs have already been approved by Congress, but are now potentially at risk as Republicans seek spending cuts from the Biden administration as a condition for raising the debt ceiling.
As part of a debt-limiting deal, House Republicans want to recover tens of billions of dollars in unspent funds of previously approved Covid-19 relief legislation. As of Tuesday, it was unclear exactly what funds could be recovered as part of a deal, though the administration and congressional negotiators have reached an agreement on the matter. President Biden said this month that reversing unspent coronavirus funds was “on the table.”
White House officials and President Kevin McCarthy did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Some White House officials consider the vaccine development program, called NextGen project, as the most important Covid measure to protect in the debt ceiling talks. It is loosely modeled after the Trump administration’s vaccine development program, known as Operation Warp Speed, which staged a series of effective shootings for Americans. in a record time.
Biden administration officials had reallocated other coronavirus response funds this year to support the NextGen program, including funds for testing, with the goal of delivering a more durable or effective vaccine as early as next year. Although no contracts have yet been signed with vaccine makers, the program could be one of the most ambitious undertakings in the administration’s response to the coronavirus, which has entered a new phase with the end of the state of health emergency May 11.
The NextGen project aims to fund the development of coronavirus vaccines that use different technology than those made by Moderna and Pfizer. These new vaccines could potentially offer longer-lasting protection against a wider range of coronavirus variants or better defense against infection.
Vaccines given through the nose or mouth, called mucosal vaccines, are among the options that administration officials are considering backing, with the goal of rolling one out as early as fall 2024, officials said. (In the shorter term, federal regulators are expected to allow another round of recalls later this year.)
The project also intends to finance the development of pancoronavirus vaccines, which would protect against different coronaviruses. Officials also plan to fund the development of new monoclonal antibody treatments.
Dawn O’Connell, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services, said in an interview this month that federal officials were busy investigating possible vaccine options for the project and align potential manufacturers.
“We’re looking at all of that and figuring out what the gaps are, what’s the thing we need the most right now, and investing in those candidates,” Ms O’Connell said, referring to the different technologies that could be used. for vaccines.
By delivering vaccines directly into the nose or mouth, where the virus first enters and begins to replicate, scientists hope to be able to prevent more infections before they start, reducing the spread of the virus from way more dramatically than current injectable injections.
Public health experts believe pancoronavirus vaccines have the potential to broaden people’s immune responses to the virus and, in doing so, help people build defenses against new variants before they even arrive.