White House keeps pushing for Covid-19 funding as concerns over BA.2 mount

Mar 18, 2022

Presented by

With Daniel Lippman

Editor's Note: POLITICO Pulse is a free version of POLITICO Pro Health Care's morning newsletter, which is delivered to our subscribers each morning at 6 a.m. The POLITICO Pro platform combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the day's biggest stories. Act on the news with POLITICO Pro.

QUICK FIX

— Top Biden administration officials went to Democrats to ask for Covid-19 funding, prompting an apology from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

— The White House is watching Europe's Covid-19 surge. BA.2 is not the dominant variant in the U.S. — yet.

— Ashish Jha will take over from Jeff Zients in leading the administration's Covid-19 response shop. It won't be easy.

WELCOME TO FRIDAY PULSE — Doug, you were tuber good to be true. Send your own shocking DNA results, tips and news to kmahr@politico.com and sowermohle@politico.com.

A message from PhRMA:

ICYMI: A majority of Americans reject so-called government "negotiation" once they learn it could restrict access and choice and chill the innovation of new treatments and cures. The survey also shows a majority find health care coverage costs unreasonable and a top priority health care issue for policymakers to address today.

Driving The Day

THE COVID FUNDING QUEST CONTINUES — Nancy Pelosi apologized to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and top infectious disease adviser Anthony Fauci for having to appeal personally to Democratic lawmakers for Covid-19 funding, our colleagues Sarah Ferris, Marianne Levine and Adam Cancryn report.

The apology came when two top Biden Administration officials pleaded with lawmakers to find a way to approve $15 billion in domestic and foreign coronavirus aid. Last week, Democratic leaders stripped the funding from the bipartisan government spending bill after members rebelled over paying for some of the package from states' unused funds.

Since then, the White House has been telling anyone who will listen plenty is at stake, sending up flares over declining testing capabilities, dwindling supplies of therapeutics and the looming cutoff of critical programs, including one that reimburses providers for treating uninsured Covid patients.

Pelosi insists it'll happen — "We're just going to have to pass it," she said — but how they'll pay for it and get it past the Senate remains a mystery, at least to us.

Meanwhile, earlier on Thursday, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky asked lawmakers to make "an investment in public health and public health infrastructure such that we do not have to sort of scramble from one infectious disease challenge or one health challenge to another."

"We came into this pandemic with an incredibly frail public health infrastructure," she said during a panel held by the Bipartisan Policy Center. "We came in at a time where our laboratory infrastructure was not there, where our data infrastructure was not there … we've made huge strides during this pandemic. But it has demonstrated that we have much more work to do."

ALL EYES ON EUROPE — White House officials are watching the surge of Covid-19 cases in Europe warily, Erin Banco, Adam Cancryn and Krista report. Over the past two years, the U.S. has experienced Covid waves several weeks after similar waves hit Europe.

In recent days, officials from the White House Covid-19 task force and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have met to game out how the administration will respond if cases begin to rise drastically, according to three senior officials.

The group has discussed the possibility of recommending communities reinstitute mask mandates indoors and how to ensure hospitals across the country are prepared for a potential spike in patients. Officials have also debated whether and when to recommend a fourth Covid-19 shot.

The CDC says the Omicron subvariant BA.2 that's driving the European wave isn't the dominant variant in the U.S., but it could take over in the coming weeks.

JHA IS IN, ZIENTS IS OUT — Well, soon anyway. President Joe Biden said Thursday that Brown University's Ashish Jha is next up to lead the White House Covid-19 task force, POLITICO's Samuel Benson writes.

Jha, dean of Brown's Public School of Health, will replace Jeffrey Zients, who has headed the Biden administration's coronavirus response since January 2021. He'll leave the post to return to private life in April.

Jha comes to the job at a tricky moment, as surges across the pond are causing serious concern, the administration's ability to respond to future threats is running low on cash and many Americans are really, really over this pandemic.

"Dr. Jha is one of the leading public health experts in America, and a well known figure to many Americans from his wise and calming public presence," Biden said in a statement. "And as we enter a new moment in the pandemic — executing on my National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan and managing the ongoing risks from COVID — Dr. Jha is the perfect person for the job."

SUBSCRIBE TO NATIONAL SECURITY DAILY : Keep up with the latest critical developments from Ukraine and across Europe in our daily newsletter, National Security Daily. The Russian invasion of Ukraine could disrupt the established world order and result in a refugee crisis, increased cyberattacks, rising energy costs and additional disruption to global supply chains. Go inside the top national security and foreign-policymaking shops for insight on the global threats faced by the U.S. and its allies and what actions world leaders are taking to address them. Subscribe today.

Around the Agencies

MODERNA ASKS FDA TO AUTHORIZE SECOND BOOSTER DOSE — On Thursday, Moderna requested the FDA to grant emergency use authorization to a fourth dose of its Covid-19 vaccine for adults who already received a booster dose of any approved or authorized shot, POLITICO's David Lim and Lauren Gardner report.

The FDA is set to convene its advisory committee of vaccine experts next month to deliberate how to approach Covid booster shots moving forward, including whether and when they'll be needed and for which populations.

A message from PhRMA:

Around the Nation

EXPANDING NYC PSYCH UNITS JUST A 'BAND-AID' — That's what health experts in New York City are saying as elected officials push to increase psychiatric bed numbers to address the needs of the city's mentally ill homeless population, write POLITICO's Amanda Eisenberg, Shannon Young and Deanna Garcia.

Hospital psych beds have decreased dramatically in New York in the last 20 years. Gov. Kathy Hochul has called for "major investments to improve psychiatric support for those in crisis," including $27.5 million for inpatient psychiatric beds statewide, more than $12 million for 500 supportive housing beds and nearly $10 million for recruitment and retention of psychiatrist and psychiatric nurses.

But advocates say that without addressing affordable and safe housing at the same time, patients will continue to fall into a cycle of being discharged and returning to the streets.

CALIFORNIA TO THE RESCUE — California lawmakers are stepping in to help residents of other states facing potential new restrictions on gender-affirming care and abortion services.

On Thursday, State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) announced plans for a bill that would provide legal protections to transgender children seeking gender-affirming health care — and the parents who face potential prosecution if they let them get it, writes POLITICO'S Chris Ramirez.

The bill would reject out-of-state court judgments that remove a child from parental custody for seeking gender-affirming health care. It would also bar compliance with out-of-state subpoenas on health care information while making arrest warrants in such cases the lowest law enforcement policy, said Wiener.

Another California bill unveiled Thursday would help people coming from out-of-state to access and cover the costs of abortion services, writes Victoria Colliver.

The bill would create a fund, described by the bill's authors as the first of its kind, using state and philanthropic dollars to help low-income Californians and out-of-state residents afford the care and related costs associated with abortion, including travel and child care.

31 MILLION AMERICANS STILL LIGHTING UP — Fewer American adults are smoking now than at any point in the last half-century, POLITICO's Katherine Ellen Foley writes . A CDC study looked at data from the 2020 National Health Interview Survey and found that about 31 million adults — or 12.5 percent of the population — were active smokers. That's the lowest recorded rate since at least 1965. The percentage rises to 19 percent when it includes Americans' use of all tobacco products, such as e-cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco and pipes.

DON'T MISS POLITICO'S INAUGURAL HEALTH CARE SUMMIT ON 3/31: Join POLITICO for a discussion with health care providers, policymakers, federal regulators, patient representatives, and industry leaders to better understand the latest policy and industry solutions in place as we enter year three of the pandemic. Panelists will discuss the latest proposals to overcome long-standing health care challenges in the U.S., such as expanding access to care, affordability, and prescription drug prices. REGISTER HERE.

Ukraine

IN EUROPE, COVID-19 DISINFO GOES TO WAR — As the war in Ukraine absorbs Europe's attention, Western anti-vaccine groups and conspiracy theorists have shifted from parroting falsehoods about the global pandemic to peddling misinformation about the war, our colleagues in Europe Laura Kayali and Mark Scott write.

A lot of that information is framing Russia as the good guy. According to misinformation experts and fact-checking groups, sprawling online communities that had previously pushed back against Covid-19 restrictions are now positioning Russia's invasion as being between Kyiv and its Western allies, who are cast as New World Order oppressors, and Moscow.

"Conspiracy theories call for more conspiracy theories," said Rudy Reichstadt, director of France's Conspiracy Watch website. Groups were already actively spreading Covid-19 misinformation on Facebook, YouTube and Telegram, Reichstadt said. "The pipes are ready; they just need to be filled."

Names in the News

Hailey Ray is now U.S. PAC and advocacy manager at GSK Consumer Healthcare. She previously was director of political affairs at the Auto Care Association.

Molly Meegan is now chief legal officer and general counsel at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. She previously was deputy general counsel at the Human Rights Campaign.

What We're Reading

Community clinics are struggling to keep their workers as the pandemic drags on in California, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The Washington Post writes that the $16 billion plan to modernize veterans' medical records poses threats to their health.

A message from PhRMA:

According to a new poll , voters overwhelmingly support policies that would lower out-of-pocket costs and bring greater transparency and accountability to the health insurance system.

We need to make the cost of medicine more predictable and affordable. Government price setting is the wrong way. The right way means covering more medicines from day one, making out-of-pocket costs more predictable and sharing negotiated savings with patients at the pharmacy counter.

Learn more .