The pandemic has ended (or has it?): Biden said in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” that while the country still has “a problem” with COVID-19, “the pandemic is over,” comments that surprised administration officials, two senior health officials said. Despite Biden’s ad-lib, officials working on the COVID-19 response said their policy planning would stay the course, and there’s still an expectation that the emergency public health declaration will be renewed next month.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said during an interview at The Atlantic Festival that Biden’s declaration was “semantics” and that he actually intended to convey that “we’re in a much better place with regard to the fulminant stage of the pandemic.” Fauci said during a Center for Strategic and International Studies event that the United States is “heading in the right direction” on COVID-19 but it’s “unlikely” that the disease will be eradicated, as another variant is likely to take hold in the late fall or early winter.
Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) moved to force a vote in the chamber on ending the COVID-19 national emergency declaration, citing Biden’s comments while the administration pushes for billions in fresh funding.
In the courtroom: The Department of Justice’s antitrust challenge to UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s $13 billion acquisition of Change Healthcare Inc. was rejected by a federal judge, who kept the full opinion under seal due to “competitively sensitive information” but promised to release a redacted version.
The American Hospital Association and the American Medical Association dropped their lawsuit against the federal government over the implementation of Congress’ surprise billing law, which alleged that the rulemaking process shifted from lawmakers’ intent and favored payers during independent arbitration.
Biden administration: HHS’ Office of Inspector General said in a report that the Food and Drug Administration’s emergency use authorization policies resulted in quality issues and false results with COVID-19 tests that quickly hit the market during the early stages of the pandemic. The HHS watchdog said the government should overhaul its EUA strategy before another pandemic occurs.
Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee ranking member Richard Burr (R-N.C.) reached an agreement with Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the committee chair, on a five-year reauthorization of the FDA’s user fee programs, a “practically clean” bill, per Burr, which includes some policy riders that he did not specify. Two sources familiar with the discussions said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) will push for a totally clean five-year user fee bill, blocking the riders from being attached to the short-term government funding bill, which Congress is planning to consider this week.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended that all adults under 65 be screened by doctors for anxiety, the first such recommendation from the panel of medical experts that they say is intended to ensure that mental health disorders don’t go untreated. The HHS-appointed advisory group will review public comments through Oct. 17 and issue final guidance sometime after that.
In a 56-40 vote, the Senate confirmed Arati Prabhakar as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, making her the first woman, person of color and immigrant to hold the position. Prabhakar, who previously led the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, will also assume the Cabinet-level position of Biden’s science adviser, stepping in for former National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, who served in the role on an interim basis.
COVID-19 vaccines: The reformulated COVID-19 boosters from Moderna Inc. and Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech are expected to be available for children by the middle of next month, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with a recommendation from the agency coming as soon as early October provided the shots are authorized by the FDA.
The Biden administration is scaling back its target for COVID-19 vaccine donations as global demand for the shots sags, amending its deal with Pfizer to secure 600 million vaccine doses by the end of 2022 instead of 1 billion.
Moderna signed off on a request from the U.N.-backed Medicines Patent Pool to provide the French government with use of its COVID-19 vaccine as part of a World Health Organization effort to increase the development of mRNA vaccines ticketed for poorer countries facing accessibility issues. Pfizer declined a similar ask.
