Talk of Covid’s End Sparks Fight Over Funding, Emergency Powers

The latest phase of the Covid pandemic is shaping up to be the hardest for the Biden administration as the White House faces uphill battles getting new funds and public interest for its booster campaign.

President Joe Biden recently undercut his own message that more funds are needed to buy more Covid tests and vaccines to prepare for a possible fall or winter surge of the virus, Republicans and public health experts say. Biden said over the weekend that the pandemic is “over,” but noted there is still work to be done.

Biden’s remark came as the administration is ramping up efforts to persuade more Americans to get the updated version of the Covid-19 vaccine and is seeking new funds to buy more antivirals, testing, and doses of the vaccine.

New variant-specific immunization is a key step in addressing the pandemic, public health experts say. The president’s statement could hamper the effort for those reluctant to get jabbed or weary of pandemic policy.

“Many more people are going to hear the message that the pandemic is over, than the message that they should get a booster,” said Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation. “Even among people who got their primary vaccination series, booster uptake has been quite low.”

Republicans in Congress, meanwhile, are pushing the administration to give up the emergency powers it’s relied upon for almost two years to battle Covid. Officials signaled they’re not ready to give them up—and potentially halt billions of dollars in federal aid to states—while Republican lawmakers say it’s time to relinquish them.

“You got this conflict of Covid being over, but they want to keep all the emergency powers,” Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said.

Debate Over Funding

Democrats say the federal pandemic response is shifting, not ending.

There were 14,163 new Covid cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Sept. 18, the day Biden’s comment aired in an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes.” The country is averaging about 360 Covid-related deaths per week, a massive drop from the more than 2,000 Covid-related weekly deaths occurring during the first two months of 2022.

“It would not be consistent with reality if President Biden was out there suggesting what we’re living through today is the same thing as what we were living through two years ago,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told reporters.

Murphy said more funds are needed for updated Covid boosters and other federal pandemic response measures even as the pandemic takes fewer lives.

“We are where we are on Covid because of the investments we’ve made on everything from testing to vaccines,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said. “We cannot let up.”

READ MORE