April 8, 2022 – Now just isn’t the time for the U.S. Congress to chop worldwide COVID-19 funding, says Well being and Human Companies Secretary Xavier Becerra, JD, as a result of we’re so near “crushing” COVID-19 this yr.
A Senate deal introduced April 4 allotted $10 billion to a coronavirus assist package deal that continues funding for vaccination, therapy, and testing in the US. However the package deal didn’t embrace an extra $5 billion to fund worldwide COVID-19 vaccinations.
“The USA has lengthy been a powerful supporter of the worldwide response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” World Well being Group Director-Normal Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, mentioned at an April 7 joint HHS/WHO briefing in honor of World Well being Day.
“We proceed to look to the U.S. for its assist to finish the pandemic globally, and to handle the various different challenges to well being we face,” he mentioned.
Extra Cash Wanted
Becerra sees Congress’s transfer as short-sighted. “Our combat just isn’t over. Whereas we’re grateful for the Senate’s newest work on a $10 billion bipartisan plan to assist meet among the nation’s COVID wants considerably, extra is required to fund each our home response and our international response.”
With out international funding, Becerra mentioned, the U.S. Agency for International Development won’t have assets “to get extra pictures in arms world wide. We will probably be pressured to cut back our work offering oxygen and antiviral tablets to others in want. We are going to lack the funding to offer speedy testing to nations in want at each flip.”
Serving to all nations attain the WHO objective of vaccinating a minimum of 70% of their populations “is within the curiosity of the US itself,” Tedros mentioned.
On a uncommon go to to Washington, DC, for World Well being Day, he mentioned: “I’m painfully conscious that the pandemic has taken a heavy toll right here within the U.S. I provide my deep condolences to all People who’ve misplaced somebody they love.”
Tedros additionally acknowledged the sacrifices and dangers taken by front-line well being care employees. “And I provide my deep appreciation and respect to each well being employee who has put themselves in hurt’s strategy to serve others in the midst of the pandemic.”
A Selection Can Be Made
Becerra and Tedros stay optimistic that Congress will act to fund international COVID-19 efforts.
“I understand how troublesome generally it may be to cross crucial laws, however we are able to make a alternative. We are able to – as I heard one member of Congress say yesterday – crush COVID and end the job that we appeared to be getting near doing,” Becerra mentioned. “Or we are able to let it surge again.”
“And I feel everybody understands what it means if COVID surges again or some new variant comes round.”
In response to a journalist’s query, Tedros agreed that vaccination numbers stay low in lots of areas. For example, 83% of individuals in Africa nonetheless usually are not vaccinated, he mentioned.
“We’re on the 1-yard line, prepared to attain the landing,” Becerra mentioned. “Let’s simply crush COVID and pull the staff off the sphere.”
Requested how he would reply if Congress doesn’t restore the funding, Becerra mentioned, “Failure just isn’t an choice. I do not suppose anybody desires to return to lockdowns and watching their family members cross, and never having the ability to be with them once they’re of their best want.”
“We won’t return to that.”
