White House braces for cold weather of 100 million COVID-19 infections
Moses Yarborough,
A senior administration official said Friday that the White House is preparing for up to 100 million Americans to contract COVID-19 during the fall-winter wave if Congress does not provide new funding for vaccines and tests, warning that enough new funding is needed. Vaccines for everyone.
A senior government official told a small group of reporters Friday that the estimate is the average of a set of models from outside experts consulting with the government, which means more Americans are also likely to contract the virus, especially if there is an important new alternative. he is. †
That compares to the 130-140 million Americans estimated to have been hit by an omicron wave this winter, which has led to a significant spike in deaths.
The government says the number of cases could be lower if new funding allows many Americans to get updated vaccines this fall and plenty of testing.
The Biden administration says the new wave is not a cause for concern, as there are new tools, such as the highly potent Pfizer pill known as Baxlovid, as well as vaccines.
But officials say they need new funding from Congress to make these tools available in the next wave later this year.
Pfizer and Moderna are working on new versions of the vaccine that are intended to be more effective against new mutations of the virus. The so-called bivalent vaccine will target both the omicron variant and the original strain.