Coons says millions of vaccine doses will expire without COVID-19 funding

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) on Sunday said millions of vaccine doses will expire if Congress does not pass additional COVID-19 funding.

“We are going to lose millions of doses of vaccine that will expire,” Coons told moderator Margaret Brennan on CBS’s “Face the Nation” when asked if vaccines will go bad should Congress not approve more funds.

“I think we should treat this as emergency spending. But frankly, we’ll negotiate what we have to in order to secure a chance to move forward and not waste the vital vaccines America has already purchased,” he added.

The comments come as the Senate is embroiled in a battle over COVID-19 funding. A bipartisan group of senators announced earlier this month that they had reached a deal for a $10 billion COVID-19 deal, but some Republicans are now demanding a vote be held for an amendment to reinstate Title 42 in exchange for their support for the funding.

The Biden administration earlier this month rescinded Title 42, a controversial Trump-era policy that allowed for the expulsion of migrants at the border and blocked them from seeking asylum.

Congress, however, is currently on recess.

Pressed by Brennan about the characterization of the funding, Coons on Sunday said the U.S. “can and should justify this additional spending as critical for our national security, or as teaching our values, showing to each other the best in the human spirit and the most central tenants of the faith that inspires so many Americans.”