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03/23/2022

U.S. Exhausts Funds to Buy Potential Fourth Vaccine Dose for all Americans

Congress is to blame

The Biden administration lacks the funds to purchase a potential fourth coronavirus (COVID-19) 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.

"Right now, we don't have enough money for fourth doses, if they're called for," White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients said on a forthcoming episode of In The Bubble With Andy Slavitt, which was 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."

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Washington Post.

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