Biden's Coronavirus Catastrophe

Press Release

Shortly after President Joe Biden was sworn into office, Democrats in Congress rushed to pass a supposed coronavirus relief package with a $2 trillion price tag, calling it the American Rescue Plan. Unfortunately, the partisan legislation was focused more on funding unrelated policies and programs on their radical wish list than actually addressing the ongoing needs of the pandemic.

Since the pandemic began, six supplemental funding bills have been enacted with more than $97 billion allocated specifically for coronavirus testing. In the so-called American Rescue Plan, this included $47 billion. Despite this generous amount, Americans continue to face massive shortages nationwide, making it clear that there has not been a lack of funding for testing, but rather a lack of planning on the part of the Biden Administration. Moreover, President Biden re-routed nearly $2 billion allocated for testing to re-stock the depleted Strategic National Stockpile to deal with his self-created crisis at our southern border.

Beyond the testing failures, the Biden Administration has completely missed the mark in assessing and scaling the nation's needs for lifesaving therapeutics. Regrettably, the legislation was woefully short on funds to purchase urgently needed therapeutics. In addition, the Administration poorly planned for the delivery of these therapeutics, resulting in confusion, frustration and loss of care. Instead, the Administration focused primarily on a strategy of vaccinations, including illegal vaccine mandates for large businesses.

The United States has developed several lifesaving therapeutics, including oral antiviral pills and monoclonal antibodies that have proven to exponentially reduce the dangerous effects of this virus. Yet, under President Biden's direction, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently revoked emergency use authorizations for two monoclonal antibody therapies, citing that they were ineffective in treating the Omicron variant. Prematurely pulling a treatment from the market based on one variant is a dangerous move. Americans continue to contract the Delta variant, and we do not know what the next variant will be. When it comes to saving lives, all options should remain on the table.

As a direct result of the Administration's rationing of therapeutics, governors are being punished for doing their best to get medical resources for their state's residents. Last week Oklahoma only received 504 monoclonal antibody treatments and 4,960 antiviral pills for the entire state. For reference, last week there were 62,852 new COVID-19 cases in Oklahoma.

Amid this national crisis mishandled by the Administration, it's alarming that the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Xavier Becerra has hardly been seen or heard, rarely appearing at White House or COVID-19 media briefings since he was appointed to his position. Even more concerning, his first visit to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) did not even occur until he was eight months into the job.

I am also alarmed that a significant portion of supplemental funds have been used to bailout Democrat-run cities for their poor economic planning and leadership. Before President Biden comes asking Congress for more money, we need real answers to questions about how funding has already been used and a serious discussion about what areas remain in need.

If we are serious about getting our nation back on track, we need to focus on the resources needed for families, schools and businesses. This includes, ensuring testing, vaccines and therapeutics are widely available. Unfortunately, President Biden has completely fallen short and left his promise to end this pandemic unfilled to the American people.

Source