SCOOP: HHS RAMPS UP TESTING INVESTMENT — The Biden administration will spend $650 million to bolster domestic manufacturing of Covid-19 tests, ahead of an expected rise in demand driven by school testing programs, the administration’s own workplace vaccine-or-test mandate and increased holiday travel. The money will go toward making professional molecular point-of-care tests that providers can use to quickly confirm the results of more widely available — but less accurate — over-the-counter antigen tests, POLITICO’s David Lim reports. The point-of-care molecular tests generally perform similarly to lab-based PCR tests, according to a senior administration official. The administration is planning to officially announce the investment today, but the actual contracting process will occur in the coming weeks, and it will likely take time for manufacturing capacity to come to fruition. “Given the demand is going up for testing around all the serial testing programs [and] screening programs that are getting established, many of these companies are not able to completely keep up with demand,” the official said. “This investment is intended to expand capacity, but also to make sure that these lines stay open when, or if, demand from the marketplace diminishes for a period of time.” Scott Becker, who heads the Association of Public Health Laboratories, applauded the investment, calling it a “needed insurance policy so we don't lose time having to restart the manufacturing base.” PFIZER WANTS TO BOOST ALL ADULTS — Pfizer and BioNTech are seeking authorization for their Covid-19 booster shot to be available to all adults — the latest bid to expand Americans’ access to the additional dose, POLITICO’s Lauren Gardner reports. The filing with the FDA followed trial results showing a third shot bumped up the vaccine’s efficacy to 95 percent, though the median time between the second dose and the booster in that study was 11 months — well past the six-month mark the FDA and CDC have relied on. Pfizer boosters are currently available to people 65 and older and those at increased risk of contracting Covid-19 or becoming severely ill. Yet those parameters are not tightly policed, and opening the shots up to all adults would simplify who is eligible for the additional dose. More than 16 million people have received a Pfizer booster to date, according to CDC data. That surpasses the nearly 9 million who have gotten a Moderna booster and the roughly 240,000 who sought out a second Johnson & Johnson shot. Bourla: Boosters could be annual. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla reiterated his belief Tuesday that people may need Covid-19 boosters every year, calling it the “likely scenario” during an Atlantic Council event on Tuesday. “However, I have been surprised many times in my life with things like that in science,” he added. “We need to wait and see.” Bourla also blasted those who knowingly spread misinformation about the vaccines, calling them “criminals” who “literally cost millions of lives.” “The only thing that stands between the new way of life and the current way of life, frankly, is the hesitancy to get vaccinated,” he said. BECERRA VISITS THE MAYO CLINIC — HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra is in Minnesota today, where he’s slated to tour the world-renowned Mayo Clinic and hold a presser alongside Gov. Tim Walz and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.). The event is aimed at touting the administration’s drug pricing plans and promoting pediatric Covid-19 vaccinations. But it also marks the highest-profile visit by a federal official since then-Vice President Mike Pence traveled to Mayo in April 2020 — and famously refused to wear a mask. Pence’s break with CDC and hospital policy at the height of the initial Covid-19 outbreak turned into a multiday PR disaster. The vice president initially defended his decision by saying he’d been regularly tested, while his wife claimed he was unaware of Mayo’s mask policy (an assertion the institution refuted). Pence would acknowledge days later he should have worn one, even as he insisted it wasn’t necessary. Given that history, PULSE checked in with Becerra’s office and confirmed: He’ll be masked up today. A Mayo Clinic spokesperson also verified the medical center “alerted everyone of our mask policy, just as we did before.” | 
