By Eric Utter
The Biden administration recently announced that it has extended the COVID-19 public health emergency until the sun expires April, ostensibly due to a highly transmissible omicron subvariant stoking concerns that the U.S. may face another wave of illness from the disease this winter.
A spokesperson for the Health and Human Services Department stated, “The COVID-19 Public Health Emergency remains in effect, and as HHS committed to earlier, we will provide a 60-day notice to states before any possible termination or expiration.”
The first emergency was declared in early 2020. In September, President Biden declared, “The pandemic is over.” In fairness to the Addled One, he might have been referring to the Swine Flu Pandemic of 2009-2010…or possibly the Plague of Justinian circa A.D. 541–542.
Expect the administration to keep extending the “emergency” as it has repeatedly for the past couple of years. I fully expect them to extend the emergency in 2024 before leaving office, due to the sub-subvariant MICKEYMOUSE.1984.666.
Even authoritarians can wax nostalgic. So “one more time for all the old times.”