A pharmacist administers the latest COVID-19 vaccine throughout a clinic for seniors on the Southwest Senior Middle earlier this month in Chicago.
E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/Tribune Information Service by way of Getty Photos
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E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/Tribune Information Service by way of Getty Photos
A pharmacist administers the latest COVID-19 vaccine throughout a clinic for seniors on the Southwest Senior Middle earlier this month in Chicago.
E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/Tribune Information Service by way of Getty Photos
President Biden’s declaration that “the pandemic is over” might complicate the administration’s effort to battle COVID-19, public well being specialists say.
Biden made the remarks in a Sunday broadcast of 60 Minutes. “We nonetheless have an issue with COVID. We’re nonetheless doing loads of work on it. However the pandemic is over,” he mentioned. “If you happen to discover, nobody’s carrying masks. All people appears to be in fairly fine condition. And so I feel it is altering.”
The president’s feedback come as public well being officers are attempting to persuade People to get a brand new booster shot, and because the White Home has labored unsuccessfully for months to persuade Congress to supply greater than $22 billion in new funding for the COVID-19 response. Since Sunday night time, Republicans have already used his phrases to query vaccine mandates which can be nonetheless in place for the nation’s navy and different federally funded applications.
On the similar time, almost 400 People are dying every day of COVID, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A number of public well being specialists known as Biden’s remarks “unlucky.”
“When you will have the president of the U.S. saying the pandemic is over, why would individuals line up for his or her boosters? Why would Congress allocate extra funding for these different methods and instruments?” mentioned Dr. Celine Gounder, an epidemiologist and senior fellow with the Kaiser Household Basis. “I’m profoundly dissatisfied. I feel this can be a actual lack of management.”
The remarks might trigger political difficulties
The White Home is at present combating an uphill battle in Congress to secure $22.4 billion in emergency COVID-19 funding to help vaccinations, testing and additional analysis. Some Republican help is required within the Senate to safe the funding, which the administration has been looking for for the reason that spring. It has been onerous to come back by as some GOP lawmakers argue that there’s nonetheless unspent cash from earlier COVID-19 funding measures that can be utilized.
In asserting the funding request earlier this month, an official advised reporters on a briefing name that there’s not at present “sufficient funding to get by a surge within the fall.” The administration has already stopped the program to send free test kits to Americans due to an absence of funds.
The president’s phrases might undercut the trouble to get this cash additional.
Republicans are already utilizing the assertion to query the justification for ongoing pandemic measures, together with the military’s vaccine requirement and mandates for vaccines and masks in federally funded Head Start education programs.
“Biden admitted final night time that the COVID pandemic is over. In different phrases, there is no such thing as a ‘ongoing emergency’ to justify his proposal for scholar mortgage handouts,” said Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.
Some public well being specialists agreed with Biden’s characterization of a “change” within the pandemic. “It’s a cheap factor to do as we collectively transfer on from this emergency footing that we have been on for the final couple of years, and attempt to navigate a brand new regular,” mentioned Dr. Bob Wachter, chair of UCSF’s Division of Medication. “It is an acceptable mind-set concerning the menace because it stands in the present day.”
Acknowledging the shift should not stand in the best way of funds for COVID-related efforts, mentioned Dr. Tom Frieden, who led the CDC through the Obama administration.
“We do not have a pandemic of Alzheimer’s illness or influenza or coronary heart illness. However Congress nonetheless must fund applications to deal with these issues,” he mentioned.
The continuing booster marketing campaign might face challenges
The Biden administration’s public well being leaders have typically struggled at occasions to current a transparent, unified message about COVID-19. His administration has at occasions been criticized for a lack of communication or issuing guidance that seemingly conflicts with available data.
Now, the president’s remarks have thrown one other wrench into the combination at an important second.
The administration has simply rolled out a brand new bivalent booster shot designed to focus on the omicron subvariants which have dominated caseloads within the nation in current months, and the company is working to persuade People to exit and get it. (Because the CDC beneficial the shot earlier this month, tons of of hundreds of People have acquired it.)
However well being officers have lengthy struggled to persuade People to get their photographs. Solely 68% of Americans completed their original vaccine course, and fewer than half of these have gotten any booster shot.
Most troubling are booster charges for individuals over 65, mentioned Jennifer Nuzzo, the director of Brown College’s Pandemic Middle. Knowledge from the CDC present that whereas the overwhelming majority of older People obtained the unique vaccines, far fewer — solely a couple of quarter — have additionally taken the 2 authentic boosters.
“If we do nothing else to cut back the variety of deaths from COVID, we have to be sure that people who find themselves on the best danger of extreme sickness and loss of life — and that is individuals over the age of 65 — that they get their booster,” Nuzzo mentioned. “I do not wish to inadvertently ship the sign that that is not one thing they should do anymore.”
She and different public well being specialists pointed to the winter, when a surge of recent circumstances is probably going as chilly climate pushes socialization indoors, and holidays immediate individuals to journey to go to household and buddies. A winter wave of circumstances would require assessments, vaccines and different efforts to fight COVID, they mentioned.
“I might say, let’s not declare the pandemic over,” mentioned Dr. Carlos Del Rio, an infectious illness specialist at Emory College. “For instance that we’re in an excellent place, and we have to proceed working onerous so as to keep in that good place.”
NPR’s Arnie Seipel contributed reporting.
