Biden Covid chief dismisses utility of lockdowns like China's

White House Covid czar Ashish Jha said Sunday that onerous lockdown policies like those being instituted in China are unlikely to work and should not be a model for places like the U.S.

“We don’t think that this zero-Covid strategy that China is pursuing is one that is likely to work,” said Jha, whom Biden tapped last month to succeed Jeff Zients, on “Fox News Sunday.” “I think it’s very difficult at this point with a highly contagious variant to be able to curtail this through lockdowns.”

China's city of Shanghai, with a population of more than 25 million, has been locked down since last month and only last week began to ease restrictions. However, such intensive measures are ratcheting up in Guangzhou province.

Jha said the focus instead at the Biden administration continues to be on vaccinations, boosters and making available treatments for Covid-19. To that end, he also urged Congress to take up a multi-billion funding package upon its return from recess later this month.

“My hope is that they picked this issue up right away and make sure that we get funding to the American people, so that we can ensure the treatment, vaccines, tests, all continue to be available.”

Jha was also asked about the prospective return of indoor mask-wearing requirements like the one reinstituted in Philadelphia. He said that those decisions should be made on the local level.

“Some may choose to go down this road, others won’t,” he said. “I think that’s exactly where these decisions should be made.”

He also defended the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s decision to extend the federal travel mask mandate for at least 15 days amid an uptick in Covid cases. The policy was set to expire April 18 but will remain in effect through May 3.

“They say that 15 more days will give us a much better sense of whether these cases are leading to severe disease, hospitalizations, and death,” Jha said. "And I think 15 days is a pretty reasonable amount of time to collect more data and make a more durable decision.”