The Biden Administration is pushing for additional funding to develop an updated COVID-19 vaccine, following the emergence of a new variant of the virus last month.
On Friday, President Biden, while vacationing in the Lake Tahoe area, said he signed off on a proposal for Congress to request additional funding for the vaccine.
“Tentatively it is recommended that it will likely be recommended everybody get it no matter whether they’ve gotten it before or not,” the President said.
The $40 million funding request to Congress from the White House on Aug. 11 did not include money for coronavirus-related issues, but the White House did include money for Ukraine, U.S. federal disaster funds, and funds to bolster the enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border to slow the flow of fentanyl into the U.S.
In 2022, the Biden administration requested $9.25 billion to fight the virus, but Congressional lawmakers refused the request.
In order to prepare for the upcoming fall, the updated version of the vaccine will be known as XBB.1.5 and will work to protect people against the new omicron strain. The vaccine will be a combination shot, similar to ones already in circulation that mixes the original coronavirus strain with last year’s most common omicron variants.
Eventually, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will need to sign off on each vaccine, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must issue recommendations for their use.
The Biden Administration declared the COVID-19 pandemic “over” in September 2022, and the updated booster program would come nearly a year later.
“We’re still doing a lot of work on it,” Biden said.
For now, the government doesn’t yet know how much the updated vaccine will cost or how long the rollout will take, but experts are working hard to get the program up and running as quickly as possible.
It’s uncertain if the Funds will be available in order to provide the emergency funding for the vaccine, as the Biden Administration and Congress have struggled to come to an agreement regarding the additional financial support requested earlier this year.
But with the virus continuing to mutate, the need for updated vaccines grows more important. The development of the XBB.1.5 vaccine is expected to begin later this year, and it remains to be seen if everyone will be required to receive it if it’s approved.
