Fauci’s Billion-Dollar Plan to Fight the Next Pandemic

DC: U.S. Capitol Building, Sunset and Moonrise
Graeme Sloan
By Yuval Rosenberg

Welcome to the last week of July
— and likely the crucial last days for negotiators working on
a bipartisan infrastructure deal to try to reach agreement on a
plan calling for nearly $600 billion in additional spending. Right
now, it isn’t looking good, with lawmakers publicly pointing
fingers even as some involved in the talks continue to express
optimism that they’ll get it done. Here’s what you need to
know.
Infrastructure Talks at Risk of Collapsing
as They Reach ‘Critical Moment’

Today was supposed to be the day. Negotiators scrambling to
finalize a bipartisan infrastructure agreement had hoped to settle
their remaining differences by Monday. Instead, the talks hit
another roadblock as the informal deadline approached, with
lawmakers publicly sniping over a host of lingering sticking
points.

The Associated Press
reports: “Disputes have surfaced over how much
money should go to public transit and water projects. And other
disagreements over spending and wage requirements for highways,
broadband and other areas remain unresolved, as well as whether to
take unspent COVID-19 relief money to help pay for the
infrastructure.”

Democrats had reportedly sent Republicans a proposal late Sunday
to address the outstanding issues, including an offer to accept the
GOP position on highway spending if Republicans agreed to the
Democratic stance on public transit. Republicans rejected the
offer, reportedly disputing the characterization of the
highway-for-transit offer and arguing that it sought to reopen
issues that negotiators had already settled. For their part,
Democrats said that Sen. Mitt Romney
“reneged” on a deal to provide $55 billion in
funding for water infrastructure and add $15 billion to address
lead pipe contamination, a charge Romney’s office called “laughably
false.”

So, like we said, not looking good. You can read more about the
subsequent blame game at
CNN,
Politico or
The Hill.

A ‘critical moment’: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer
(D-NY) said Monday that talks had reached a “critical moment.” He
added that he is “fully committed” to passing a bipartisan
infrastructure package this summer, but warned that the prolonged
talks could mean that the Senate has to work over this weekend or
forego some of its August recess. "The bipartisan group of senators
has had nearly five weeks of negotiations since they first
announced an agreement with President Biden. It's time for everyone
to get to yes and produce an outcome," Schumer said.

Asked about the outlook for an agreement, President Joe Biden
told reporters that he’s still optimistic. And officials involved
in the talks said on Sunday that they were close and still hoped to
seal a deal.

Trump weighs in: Former President Donald Trump issued a
statement Monday claiming that Senate Republicans “are being
absolutely savaged by Democrats on the so-called ‘bipartisan’
infrastructure bill” and urging Republicans to drop the
infrastructure talks until after the 2022 elections or until they
have a stronger negotiating position.

"Don’t do the infrastructure deal,” Trump said. “Republicans,
don’t let the Radical Left play you for weak fools and losers!"

What’s next: The group of 10 senators leading the
negotiations is reportedly set to meet again Monday evening.

Fauci’s Multi-Billion-Dollar Plan to Prepare for the Next
Pandemic

Dr. Anthony Fauci is pushing an “ambitious and expensive plan”
to develop “prototype” vaccines against a number of different types
of viruses so that the nation is better prepared if the next
pandemic isn’t caused by a coronavirus, Gina Kolata of The New York
Times
reports.

Scientists had studied coronaviruses for years, meaning that
they already had the necessary knowledge and tools to develop
vaccines against Covid-19. “But what will happen if the next
pandemic comes from a virus that causes Lassa fever, or from the
Sudan strain of Ebola, or from a Nipah virus?” Kolata asks.

As director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases, Fauci’s answer is a program that would cost “a few
billion dollars a year” and have researchers study the molecular
structure of 20 different virus families and how the body can fight
them.

The project is reportedly the brainchild of Dr. Barney Graham,
deputy director of the Vaccine Research Center at the National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Graham pitched the
idea in February of 2017, and Fauci told the Times that he’s been
pushing it more recently in talks with the White House and
others.

“If we get the funding, which I believe we will, it likely will
start in 2022,” Fauci said, adding that prototypes for half of the
virus families might be expected in the first five years.

Much of the funding would come from Fauci’s agency, which has a
budget of just over $6 billion this year, but the plan would
require additional money from Congress. “It would require pretty
large sums of money,” Fauci told the Times. “But after what we’ve
been through, it’s not out of the question.”

VA Becomes

First Federal Agency to Require Vaccines for Employees

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced Monday that
employees who provide medical care will now be required to be
vaccinated against Covid-19, the first time a federal agency has
made such a decision. Starting Wednesday, frontline workers will
have eight weeks to get their shots, and those who fail to meet the
requirement will face penalties, including possible job loss.

VA Secretary Denis McDonough
told The New York Times that his main goal is to
protect the people in the agency’s care. “I am doing this because
it’s the best way to keep our veterans safe, full stop,” he said.
The VA runs the biggest health care system in the country and is
one of the largest federal employers.

A growing movement: The VA’s announcement came on the
same day that more than 50 medical organizations — including the
American Medical Association, the American College of Physicians
and the American Nurses Association — called on health care
organizations to impose vaccine mandates.

“Because of highly contagious variants, including the Delta
variant, and significant numbers of unvaccinated people, COVID-19
cases, hospitalizations and deaths are once again rising throughout
the United States,” the group said in a collective statement.
“Vaccination is the primary way to put the pandemic behind us and
avoid the return of stringent public health measures. ... We call
for all health care and long-term care employers to require their
employees to be vaccinated against covid-19.”

Also on Monday, officials in New York City and the state of
California announced new Covid-related rules for workers. As of
Labor Day, all 350,000 city employees must be vaccinated or start
getting testing on a weekly basis. The same rule goes into effect
in August in California, and includes all health care workers as
well.

“Too many people have chosen to live with this virus,”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom told reporters Monday. “We’re at a
point in this pandemic where individuals’ choice not to get
vaccinated is now impacting the rest of us, and in a profound and
devastating and deadly way.”

Resistance to vaccinations: The more aggressive push for
vaccinations comes amid rising case counts across the country,
especially in areas with low vaccination rates. A substantial
percentage of the U.S. population is resisting getting vaccinated,
and health officials are growing increasingly frustrated,
especially as more people get sick.

“The reality ... is that the new infections, hospitalizations
and deaths are almost exclusively among the unvaccinated,” Mollyann
Brodie of the Kaiser Family Foundation
told The Washington Post.

Many unvaccinated people say they have no plans to become
vaccinated. According to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public
Affairs Research
poll released last week, 35% of those who have not
been vaccinated say they probably will not take the vaccine, while
45% say they definitely will not.

“We always knew some proportion of the population would be
difficult to persuade no matter what the data showed,” Dr. Amesh
Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins
University, told the AP, adding that “a lot of people are beyond
persuasion.”

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