White House Warns the U.S. Is Running Out of Money for COVID Tests and Vaccines

JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images Passing out free COVID-19 rapid tests

The White House warned that they will soon run out of money for their COVID-19 program that supplies free testing, treatments and vaccinations for Americans.

The lack of money is due to Congress eliminating the proposed $22.5 billion within the larger government spending bill that passed last week, and which President Joe Biden signed into law on Tuesday.

White House officials had urged Congress to include the funding in the spending bill to stay on top of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly as a new wave threatens to hit in the next few weeks. Without the money, senior administration officials said in a letter to Congress that they will not be able to buy enough booster shots, new vaccines and antiviral pills, and will run out of funding for monoclonal antibody treatments.

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"With cases rising abroad, scientific and medical experts have been clear that in the next couple of months we could see rising cases of COVID-19 here in the United States as well. Waiting to provide funding until we're in a surge will be too late," wrote Shalanda Young, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget and Jeffrey Zients, the White House Coordinator for COVID-19 Response.

Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers had initially agreed to include $15 billion — less than what the White House was requesting — for COVID-19 funding in the $1.5 trillion government spending package, but talks dissolved after both sides disagreed with specifics on the funding. Republicans objected, asking to first get details on how the previous funding has been used, and Democrats worried that 30 states would lose money that had been allocated to them on previous spending packages.

Democrats have said that they will instead work to pass a standalone bill for COVID-19 funding, but Senate Democrats are unlikely to have enough votes to get it approved, NPR reported.

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As the money starts to run out, the White House said they will likely run out of monoclonal antibody treatments by May, and will have to reduce shipments to states by 30% starting next week.

And with Dr. Anthony Fauci and Pfizer advising that a fourth vaccine dose will likely be needed, the White House says they only have enough for immunocompromised people, and not the general population.

Without this funding, they added, they won't be able to prepare for future COVID-19 variants.

"With reduced capability to perform adequate surveillance, the country will be prone to being 'blindsided' by future variants," Young and Zients wrote.

"We continue to urge Congress to promptly provide the critical funds needed to prevent severe disruptions to our COVID response," they concluded.