A lack of pandemic funding means 'playing with an infectious disease fire,' experts warn

Drive-thru COVID test.
(Image credit: Jon Cherry/Getty Images)

Congress this week failed to approve additional funding to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, a defeat experts fear could have "potentially devastating consequences" in the future, Stat News reports Friday.

Though a $1.5 trillion package to fund the government (and also send aid to Ukraine) was passed, a measure to provide $15 billion in continued COVID-19 response funding was "abruptly dropped," Stat writes. Prominent experts worry this "political posturing could leave the United States stuck yet again in a cycle of under-preparedness" in the event another variant — or worse, another pandemic — arises.

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Brigid Kennedy

Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.