THE COVID FUNDING QUEST CONTINUES — Nancy Pelosi apologized to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and top infectious disease adviser Anthony Fauci for having to appeal personally to Democratic lawmakers for Covid-19 funding, our colleagues Sarah Ferris, Marianne Levine and Adam Cancryn report. The apology came when two top Biden Administration officials pleaded with lawmakers to find a way to approve $15 billion in domestic and foreign coronavirus aid. Last week, Democratic leaders stripped the funding from the bipartisan government spending bill after members rebelled over paying for some of the package from states’ unused funds. Since then, the White House has been telling anyone who will listen plenty is at stake, sending up flares over declining testing capabilities, dwindling supplies of therapeutics and the looming cutoff of critical programs, including one that reimburses providers for treating uninsured Covid patients. Pelosi insists it’ll happen — “We’re just going to have to pass it,” she said — but how they’ll pay for it and get it past the Senate remains a mystery, at least to us. Meanwhile, earlier on Thursday, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky asked lawmakers to make “an investment in public health and public health infrastructure such that we do not have to sort of scramble from one infectious disease challenge or one health challenge to another.” “We came into this pandemic with an incredibly frail public health infrastructure,” she said during a panel held by the Bipartisan Policy Center. “We came in at a time where our laboratory infrastructure was not there, where our data infrastructure was not there … we've made huge strides during this pandemic. But it has demonstrated that we have much more work to do.” ALL EYES ON EUROPE — White House officials are watching the surge of Covid-19 cases in Europe warily, Erin Banco, Adam Cancryn and Krista report. Over the past two years, the U.S. has experienced Covid waves several weeks after similar waves hit Europe. In recent days, officials from the White House Covid-19 task force and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have met to game out how the administration will respond if cases begin to rise drastically, according to three senior officials. The group has discussed the possibility of recommending communities reinstitute mask mandates indoors and how to ensure hospitals across the country are prepared for a potential spike in patients. Officials have also debated whether and when to recommend a fourth Covid-19 shot. The CDC says the Omicron subvariant BA.2 that’s driving the European wave isn’t the dominant variant in the U.S., but it could take over in the coming weeks. JHA IS IN, ZIENTS IS OUT — Well, soon anyway. President Joe Biden said Thursday that Brown University’s Ashish Jha is next up to lead the White House Covid-19 task force, POLITICO’s Samuel Benson writes. Jha, dean of Brown’s Public School of Health, will replace Jeffrey Zients, who has headed the Biden administration’s coronavirus response since January 2021. He’ll leave the post to return to private life in April. Jha comes to the job at a tricky moment, as surges across the pond are causing serious concern, the administration’s ability to respond to future threats is running low on cash and many Americans are really, really over this pandemic. “Dr. Jha is one of the leading public health experts in America, and a well known figure to many Americans from his wise and calming public presence,” Biden said in a statement. “And as we enter a new moment in the pandemic — executing on my National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan and managing the ongoing risks from COVID — Dr. Jha is the perfect person for the job.”
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