Funding fight puts future of US pandemic response in peril

The battle over funding COVID-19-related measures is putting the future of the country’s pandemic response in jeopardy, risking shortages of supplies like tests or treatments if a new variant hits again.

The government is running out of money for key tools like vaccines, treatments and tests, but funding to help pay for such provisions was stripped out of the must-pass $1.5 trillion government funding bill in Congress on Wednesday amid a dispute about how to pay for it.

That leaves the pandemic-focused funds with no clear path forward to be signed into law, and alarm bells ringing about the blow to the country’s preparedness to deal with another wave of infections should one arise.