President Biden Says the Pandemic Is Over. What Does That Mean?

When the first cases of COVID-19 began accumulating around the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) was under pressure to declare the disease a pandemic. That announcement unlocked the keys to additional funding, resources, and emergency actions to control cases. Now, in a 60 Minutes interview, President Biden has said that “the pandemic is over.” He cited the fact that people are no longer wearing masks, that large public events such as the Detroit Auto Show have resumed in person, and that concerns about COVID-19 no longer dictate our behaviors in the way they did over the past two years. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] But public health experts are wary about the declaration, concerned it will mean that people have license to abandon the already fragile networks of behaviors that are trying to keep a highly contagious virus from breaking free again to cause another wave of disease. It’s also a concerning sentiment to arrive just as health officials in the U.S. launch a booster campaign to reinstate waning protection from vaccines before the fall and winter, when respiratory viruses like SARS-CoV-2 tend to have free reign. The reality is that while Biden’s statement that hardly anyone is wearing masks is true, that’s largely the result of weariness on the public’s part, and because a judge in Florida overturned federal mandates requiring masks in government buildings and on mass transit. Therefore, the disappearance of ...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news