Doggett: Opposition to COVID funding is putting everyone at risk

More than two years into this pandemic, we are at once living through a time of continuing grief, significant recovery, and enduring hope. One million lives lost—an unfathomable toll—and disruptions to our daily lives, and up to 23 million Americans now adapting to Long COVID—including an estimated one million with cases so severe that they are unable to work.

We must act on our hard-learned lessons—including that the best medicine is prevention through vaccines, treatments and testing. Most Americans will need additional boosters in the fall—and yet right now, the government does not have sufficient doses for the entire population, and funds have run dry to purchase more. Likewise, scientists are developing new, important vaccines to provide better protection against emerging, more contagious variants. Without funds to purchase doses, Americans will not benefit from these targeted vaccines. Therapeutics, already in low supply, are also necessary to protect those who do get infected and ensure our hospitals are not overwhelmed.

Widespread testing has enabled Americans to return to the office, schools, and gather more safely, ensuring that we know quickly if we are infected and need to stay home to stop the spread. More funding is essential to keep providing free, at-home testing and testing sites like that at Metz Elementary in Austin. Funds to provide testing, treatment and vaccines to the uninsured ran dry two months ago, leaving our most vulnerable neighbors without access to the same tools as more prosperous families and leaving all of us at risk from further spread.

To meet these challenges, a supplemental COVID funding request to maintain previously provided resources has been pending in Congress. Met by a host of partisan complaints, the request was substantially reduced in order to win bipartisan support. Republicans next objected to any funding to assist developing nations where immunization rates are low and new variants can originate. While I believe that none of us will be safe until all of us are safe, international funding was eliminated from the request in an attempt to satisfy the narrow-minded. Yet still, Republican obstruction continues to block any additional funding to ensure the United States is armed for this fall.

We cannot afford to go backward. Unfortunately, the pandemic persists as too many anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists reject science and new variants emerge. Lack of preparedness and a leadership vacuum allowed the initial devastating spread of the pandemic as our country led the world in infections and death. Americans suffered as former President Trump and his enablers dithered, delayed, and denied the danger of this pandemic. Health care workers were given expired masks and garbage bags as gowns. Public health departments were under-resourced and confused by frequently-shifting guidance. Small businesses were forced to shutter. Students struggled through virtual learning. And racial inequities were exacerbated as the pandemic disproportionately impacted communities of color, especially Texas Latinos. Only effective local leadership prevented an even worse tragedy.

Much of the crisis has recently been contained. Vaccines became widely available for Americans, better therapeutics have been developed, and schools, small businesses and local governments received critical resources under the American Rescue Plan, approved by Democrats on a party-line vote. While I want greater transparency regarding how funds have been spent and the substantial prices paid for vaccines, therapeutics and testing, we cannot afford to go without these tools.

Misguided and dangerous opposition to COVID relief funding is putting everyone at risk. Instead of protecting their short-term political health, my colleagues must focus on the public health.

We are all excited to be getting back to normal, eager to avoid more disruption of our schools, our businesses and our lives. Investments now will prevent more devastating losses later this year.

Doggett represents much of Austin in the U.S. House of Representatives and chairs the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee.