The AP Interview: US ‘vulnerable’ to COVID without new shots

WASHINGTON — White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha issued a dire warning Thursday that the U.S. will be increasingly vulnerable to the coronavirus this fall and winter if Congress doesn’t swiftly approve new funding for more vaccines and treatments. “That leaves a lot of us vulnerable.” Jha predicted that the next generation of vaccines, which are likely to be targeted at the currently prevailing omicron strain, “are going to provide a much, much higher degree of protection against the virus that we will encounter in the fall and winter.” But he warned that the U.S. is at risk of losing its place in line to other countries if Congress doesn’t act in the next several weeks. Jha said he’s been making the case to lawmakers for additional funding for weeks, calling it a “very pared down request” and “the bare minimum that we need to get through this fall and winter without large loss of life.” The Food and Drug Administration is to meet in June to determine the specific strains of the virus that the fall vaccines will target, and Jha said it takes two to three months for manufacturers to develop them. That’s not an acceptable outcome, I think, for the American people.” Jha, who took over the job of coordinating the federal government’s response to the virus a month ago, called the marking of 1 million American pandemic deaths a “somber” day. “I don’t think it makes sense,” Jha said.