White House Looks to Be Planning for 'Wave of Infection,' Just in Time for Midterms, Advises Indoor Masking

During his Sunday morning appearance on ABC's "This Week," Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health and the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, spoke of an expected surge of Wuhan coronavirus cases for the coming fall and winter.

When asked by host Martha Raddatz about the expected surge, Dr. Jha explained they are indeed "Planning for a variety of scenarios including a wave of infection this fall and winter," which he used as an opportunity to push "Making that sure we have a new generation of vaccines that are being worked on right now, that we have availability of treatments and testing, and we have the resources."

If the pandemic appears to be a lesser concern, that also makes it harder for the White House to make the case that it needs tens of billions in new funding from Congress to replenish its supply of tests, treatments and vaccines in time for the fall.

At the White House briefing, Dr. Ashish Jha, the new White House coordinator of the pandemic response, warned that if Congress failed to grant the administration's request for $22 billion in new Covid funding, Americans would suffer come the fall.

Another takeaway from Dr. Jha's appearance on the program, and from the report, is a potential return to indoor masking.

Dr. Walensky said that local leaders and individuals in those regions should adopt - or at least consider - prevention strategies, such as masking in indoor public settings and more frequent testing.

Raddatz and Dr. Jha made reference to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who refrained from re-imposing an indoor mask mandate, though he did say they are "Urging New Yorkers, while you're in indoors, in large settings, social settings, wear your masks."

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/rebeccadowns/2022/05/22/white-house-looks-to-be-planning-for-wave-of-infection-just-in-time-for-midterms-n2607629