HHS and WHO Call for Renewed International COVID-19 Aid

April 8, 2022 – Now isn’t the time for the U.S. Congress to chop worldwide COVID-19 funding, says Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, JD, as a result of we’re so near “crushing” COVID-19 this yr.

A Senate deal introduced April 4 allotted $10 billion to a coronavirus assist bundle that continues funding for vaccination, remedy, and testing within the United States. But the bundle didn’t embrace a further $5 billion to fund worldwide COVID-19 vaccinations.

“The United States has lengthy been a powerful supporter of the worldwide response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, stated at an April 7 joint HHS/WHO briefing in honor of World Health Day.

“We proceed to look to the U.S. for its assist to finish the pandemic globally, and to handle the various different challenges to well being we face,” he stated.

More Money Needed

Becerra sees Congress’s transfer as short-sighted. “Our battle isn’t over. While we’re grateful for the Senate’s newest work on a $10 billion bipartisan plan to assist meet a number of the nation’s COVID wants considerably, extra is required to fund each our home response and our international response.”

Without international funding, Becerra stated, the U.S. Agency for International Development won’t have assets “to get extra pictures in arms around the globe. We will likely be compelled to reduce our work offering oxygen and antiviral drugs to others in want. We will lack the funding to offer speedy testing to nations in want at each flip.”

Helping all nations attain the WHO purpose of vaccinating at the least 70% of their populations “is within the curiosity of the United States itself,” Tedros stated.

On a uncommon go to to Washington, DC, for World Health Day, he stated: “I’m painfully conscious that the pandemic has taken a heavy toll right here within the U.S. I supply my deep condolences to all Americans who’ve misplaced somebody they love.”

Tedros additionally acknowledged the sacrifices and dangers taken by front-line well being care employees. “And I supply my deep appreciation and respect to each well being employee who has put themselves in hurt’s strategy to serve others in the middle of the pandemic.”

A Choice Can Be Made

Becerra and Tedros stay optimistic that Congress will act to fund international COVID-19 efforts.

“I understand how tough typically it may be to move important laws, however we will make a selection. We can – as I heard one member of Congress say yesterday – crush COVID and end the job that we gave the impression to be getting near doing,” Becerra stated. “Or we will let it surge again.”

“And I feel everybody understands what it means if COVID surges again or some new variant comes round.”

In response to a journalist’s query, Tedros agreed that vaccination numbers stay low in lots of areas. As an instance, 83% of individuals in Africa nonetheless aren’t vaccinated, he stated.

“We’re on the 1-yard line, prepared to attain the landing,” Becerra stated. “Let’s just crush COVID and pull the team off the field.”

Asked how he would reply if Congress doesn’t restore the funding, Becerra stated, “Failure isn’t an choice. I do not assume anybody desires to return to lockdowns and watching their family members move, and never having the ability to be with them once they’re of their biggest want.”

“We cannot return to that.”