The end of the pandemic?

Islam News – In an interview that aired on CBS’s “60 Minutes” on Sunday night of Sep. 22, U.S. President Joe Biden declared that the pandemic was “over.” By Monday morning, the backlash was in full swing.

With 400 to 500 Americans still dying every day of Covid-19, patients said the president was being insensitive at best, and some public health experts said his words were at odds with the science.

“We’ve had two million cases reported over the last 28 days, and we know underreporting is substantial,” said Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of Minnesota. Covid-19, he said, “continues to be the No. 4 cause of death in the country.”

Presidential pronouncements carry policy implications, but the Biden administration said that the president’s words would not really change anything. The Covid-19 public health emergency remains intact, and much of Biden’s domestic agenda is entangled with the coronavirus pandemic as well — including an outstanding White House request that Congress appropriate an additional $22 billion to fight the pandemic.

Biden also doesn’t have the power to declare the pandemic over. Experts say that responsibility would land with the World Health Organization, and last week, its director general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that “we are not there yet.”

“But,” he added “the end is in sight.”

Source: The New York Times