Covid Summit Leaders Pledge $3B, Urge World Not To Get Distracted

Axios: U.S. And World Leaders Pledge More Than $3B To Fight Pandemic Globally
The U.S. and other world leaders pledged Thursday more than $3 billion in new funding to fight the pandemic globally at the Biden administration's second Global COVID-19 Summit. "This includes over $2 billion for immediate COVID-19 response and $962 million in commitments toward a new pandemic preparedness and global health security fund at the World Bank," the White House said. (Doherty, 5/12)

Bloomberg: US, EU Grieve Millions Of Covid Dead In Summit On Vaccine Push
President Joe Biden and fellow world leaders called for a new push to quell the Covid-19 pandemic abroad, as the US and Europe marked grim milestones and American lawmakers balk at fresh funding. The Biden administration opened its second summit aimed at bringing the coronavirus to heel on Thursday, where leaders acknowledged Covid deaths surpassing 1 million in the US and 2 million in the EU. (Wingrove, 5/12)

NPR: 4 Takeaways From The White House Summit On Fighting COVID In Needy Countries
We're still in a pandemic — and we can't be distracted by the war in Ukraine and other global crises. That was the big message at the second Global COVID-19 Summit, a virtual event hosted by the White House along with the governments of Belize, Germany, Indonesia and Senegal on Thursday. It aimed to refocus world leaders' attention on fighting COVID. The summit was "a win against complacency," wrote Carolyn Reynolds cofounder of the Pandemic Action Network in an email to NPR. The network had urged the White House to hold the summit. She added that the half-day event has "provided a much-needed shot in the arm for both the global COVID response and to begin to prepare the world for the next pandemic threat." (Gharib, 5/12)

Axios: Biden Orders Flags At Half-Staff For 1 Million COVID Deaths
President Biden ordered flags to be lowered to half-staff on Thursday to honor the Americans who have died from COVID-19 as the death toll nears 1 million. "One million empty chairs around the dinner table. Each an irreplaceable loss. Each leaving behind a family, a community, and a Nation forever changed because of this pandemic," Biden said in a statement. "As a Nation, we must not grow numb to such sorrow," he added. "To heal, we must remember. We must remain vigilant against this pandemic and do everything we can to save as many lives as possible." (Saric, 5/12)

NPR: Of 1 Million COVID Deaths, How Many Could Have Been Averted With Vaccines?
One tragic fact about the nearly 1 million people who died of COVID-19 in the U.S. is that a huge share of them didn't have to. In Tennessee, 11,047 of the people who died could have survived if everyone in the state had gotten vaccinated. In Ohio, that number is 15,875. Nationally it's nearly 319,000, according a new estimate. (Simmons-Duffin and Nakajima, 5/13)

More from the administration —

CNN: New White House Covid Projection Puzzles Experts And Catches Some Biden Officials Off Guard 
It was a stern and startling warning from the White House's new Covid response coordinator: In the fall and winter, the US could potentially see 100 million new Covid-19 infections if Congress doesn't approve federal funding to fight the pandemic. That warning from Dr. Ashish Jha, who said the projection was based on a range of internal and external models, jolted some public health experts and even came a surprise to some top Biden administration officials, with sources telling CNN that the grim forecast -- and details of where exactly that 100 million number had been derived from -- was not discussed with some key officials intimately involved in the administration's work to fight Covid before Jha's TV interview over the weekend. (Lee and McPhillips, 5/12)

PBS NewsHour: Dr. Fauci On The State Of The Pandemic As The U.S. Marks 1 Million COVID-19 Deaths
Dr. Anthony Fauci, Chief Medical Adviser to President Biden: Well, it's terribly tragic. I mean, the idea of one million deaths in an outbreak, that is historic in nature. We have had nothing like this in well over 104 years. One of the parts about it that adds to the tragedy is that many of those deaths were avoidable, avoidable if people had been vaccinated. It's estimated that, if people had been vaccinated to a much greater extent right now, that vaccines would have avoided at least a quarter of those deaths, namely about 250,000. (5/12)

In updates on federal covid funds —

AP: The AP Interview: US 'Vulnerable' To COVID Without New Shots 
White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha has issued a dire warning 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. In an Associated Press interview Thursday, Jha said Americans’ immune protection from the virus is waning, the virus is adapting to be more contagious and booster doses for most people will be necessary — with the potential for enhanced protection from a new generation of shots. (Miller, 5/13)

The Hill: 5 Risks If Congress Does Not Pass New COVID-19 Funding
Republicans have long said they do not see an urgent need for the funding, and have insisted it be paid for with cuts to money from previous COVID-19 relief bills. ... Here are five risks if the funding does not go forward. (Sullivan, 5/12)

KHN: Few Eligible Families Have Applied For Government Help To Pay For Covid Funerals 
On a humid August afternoon in 2020, two caskets ― one silver, one white ― sat by holes in the ground at a small, graveside service in the town of Travelers Rest, South Carolina. The family had just lost a mom and dad, both to covid-19. “They died five days apart,” said Allison Leaver, their daughter who now lives in Maryland with her husband and kids. When Leaver’s parents died that summer, it was a crushing tragedy. And there was no life insurance or burial policy to help with the expense. (Farmer, 5/13)