Federal health officials warned Thursday of potentially dire consequences for the U.S. supply of coronavirus testing later this year if lawmakers fail to top up funding for the federal pandemic response, putting the country at risk of shortages and more dependent on foreign manufacturers.
dr. Ashish K. Jha, the White House’s Covid-19 Response Coordinator, described at a White House briefing the implications of reallocating Department of Health and Human Services funds earmarked for manufacturing capacity and the tests themselves to increase vaccines and Covid -19 treatments.
That move came after discussions in Congress about funding more of the federal pandemic response stalled, leaving federal health officials nowhere else to fund other critical parts of the response, they said. The White House has asked Congress for $22.5 billion in pandemic relief, but Republicans have asked for less than half that amount — $10 billion.
“We look under every couch cushion to see what’s available,” Dawn O’Connell, the assistant secretary for preparedness and response, said during the same briefing, adding that the administration could not guarantee it would be able to purchase more vaccine doses for later in the year.
dr. Jha said he had repeatedly warned lawmakers about the financial crisis.
“We’ve communicated this very clearly to Congress. I’ve had meetings with members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, in the House and Senate,” he said. “And I think members of Congress that I’ve met and have spoken, understand the situation we are in.”
Shaking up $10 billion in health department funds this week, said Dr. Jha, could jeopardize the commitments the United States has to make to test manufacturers if the nation is to maintain a consistent supply, especially during a potential surge in the fall and winter.
“The US government has put a lot of effort and resources into building that domestic production,” he said. “And what we’re seeing is, day after day, week after week, that’s starting to go away.”
As of Wednesday, new confirmed cases in the United States have roughly flattened out over the past two weeks, averaging about 110,000 a day, according to a DailyExpertNews database, after rising from less than 30,000 a few months ago. However, infections are generally underestimated. The death toll has been volatile in recent weeks, but remains below 400 a day on average.
Manufacturers authorized by the Food and Drug Administration still had a formidable capacity to produce tests this month, according to data collected by Mara Aspinall, a biomedical diagnostics expert at Arizona State University who serves on the board of directors of Arizona State University. OraSure, which conducts coronavirus testing. Those producers could make 402 million rapid home tests this month, up from a peak of 535 million in February, according to figures released on May 25.
President Biden was criticized over the winter for what health experts said there were insufficient home test purchases last summer and fall, leading to long lines and pharmacy shortages during Omicron’s first wave. Biden promised to provide one billion free home tests to Americans over the winter, and his health department required private insurers to cover eight free home tests for American households each month.
But dr. Jha said without more money the administration would not be able to sustain production. Companies are already laying off workers and closing production lines, he said.
The White House, he added, could become more reliant on tests from foreign manufacturers, including some in China. The United States has become increasingly dependent on the Californian company iHealth, the maker of a popular home test, and its Chinese manufacturer.
“It’s much more expensive to rebuild that domestic production capacity, and much more expensive to have to go back to rent and buy new equipment,” said Dr. yah. “And ultimately we fund and support a lot of that effort.”
Ms. O’Connell said some US test manufacturers had shut down their operations last year when commercial demand waned.
“For us to lose this capacity again and then be forced to take off with a hook or a crook in the next few months, with a possible variant coming up,” she said, “you know, it’s just not a good place for the country to be.”
Sarah Cahalan reporting contributed.