A senior Biden administration official told CNBC on Monday that the U.S. will begin limiting the distribution of new COVID-19 vaccines this fall if Congress fails to pass more funding toward them.
The official cautioned that a bottleneck in vaccines and therapeutics could affect those at the highest risk of getting seriously ill from the virus – around the same time the U.S. prepares for a surge in COVID cases this fall.
“We will be able to get some vaccines of the new generation, but it’ll be a very limited amount and really only for the highest-risk individuals, but it will not be available for everybody,” the official said.
The warning comes as the Food and Drug Administration’s advisory committee will hold a meeting on June 28 over whether the U.S. should switch to new shots developed by Pfizer and Moderna for its fall vaccination campaign.
The new shots target new variants in COVID that have arisen since the initial viral strain, specifically delta and omicron.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen Mitt Romney, R-Utah, struck a deal in early April to forward funding for the new generation of vaccines. However, the $10 billion measure was less than half the $22.5 billion initially requested by the White House and has still not passed.
The official further claimed that domestic COVID test manufacturers are shutting down production lines, and without funding, the U.S. will be dependent on other nations for tests.
“It’s going to be a pretty tough fall and winter if Congress abdicates its responsibilities and does not show up with funding for the American people,” the official said. “We’re going to do what we can, but at the end of the day, our hands are going to be tied.”
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