Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
US Out Of Money For Buying Second Covid Booster Shots, Official Says
The Washington Post: White House Officials Warn U.S. Has Exhausted Funds To Buy Potential Fourth Vaccine Dose For All Americans
The Biden administration lacks the funds to purchase a potential fourth coronavirus vaccine dose for everyone, even as other countries place their own orders and potentially move ahead of the United States in line, administration officials said Monday. Federal officials have secured enough doses to cover a fourth shot for Americans age 65 and older as well as the initial regimen for children under 5, should regulators determine those shots are necessary, said three officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to detail funding decisions. But the officials say they cannot place advance orders for additional vaccine doses for those in other age groups, unless Congress passes a stalled $15 billion funding package. (Diamond, Roubein and Abutaleb, 3/22)
People: White House Says They're Out Of Money For Fourth COVID Vaccine Dose
"Right now, we don't have enough money for fourth doses, if they're called for," White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients told former COVID-19 advisor Andy Slavitt on an upcoming episode of his podcast, In The Bubble With Andy Slavitt, recorded Monday and shared with the [Washington] Post. "We don't have the funding, if we were to need a variant-specific vaccine in the future." The lack of money is due to Congress eliminating the proposed $15 billion for the White House's COVID-19 program — which supplies free testing, treatments and vaccinations — in the larger government spending bill that passed two week ago that President Joe Biden signed into law last Tuesday. (Mazziota, 3/22)
Fortune: White House: There’s No Money To Pay For Everyone’s Fourth COVID Shot
While medical officials debate whether a second COVID-19 booster shot is necessary, Biden administration officials are warning that the government doesn’t have the money to pay for those doses, as it did the first vaccination rounds. ... Pfizer and Moderna have both filed for emergency authorization for a second COVID-19 booster shot for people 65 and older -- this would mean a third or fourth round of jabs, depending on the vaccines you've had previously. (Morris, 3/22)
In related news about boosters —
Salon: Do We All Need A Fourth Vaccine Dose? Why Doctors Are Not Convinced — Yet
Studies continue to show that mRNA vaccines and boosters for COVID-19 are very successful at preventing hospitalization and death, but there has been some data to suggest their overall effectiveness against coronavirus infections is waning — especially when confronted with the omicron variant. Notably, one recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine analyzed data from 2,239,193 people in Qatar who had received at least 2 doses of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines. Researchers found that for those who were fully vaccinated and boosted, protection against the delta variant was 86.1 percent; but against symptomatic illness from the omicron variant, protection was only 49.4 percent. A separate study from the United Kingdom determined the effectiveness of a third Pfizer dose declined from 67 to 46 percent within a few months after vaccination at preventing a symptomatic infection. (Karlis, 3/22)
Detroit Free Press: Beaumont Study: Booster Vaccine Dose Cut Risk Of COVID-19 Death 45%
COVID-19 vaccine booster shots reduced the risk of death in adults hospitalized at Beaumont Health by 45% compared with unvaccinated patients, according to a new study published in The Lancet Regional Health — Americas medical journal. The observational study is among the first to examine how effective COVID-19 vaccine boosters are in the real world. It included 8,232 people with COVID-19 who were hospitalized with the virus between Aug. 12 and Jan. 20 at Beaumont's hospitals — during both the delta and omicron variant surges. The mortality rate was 7.1% among the 448 people who were fully vaccinated and boosted. (Jordan Shamus, 3/22)
