Is Biden correct that the pandemic is over? Not exactly.
His words made it unclear what the remaining public health problems are, including long Covid, and what exactly needs to be done about them.
During a CBS “60 Minutes” interview that aired on Sunday, President Joe Biden said the SARS CoV-2 pandemic was over. The most remarkable thing about his words might be that many people will believe, or worse, amplify, them in the most literal sense.
After all, our country was already in a place where there could be substantial disagreement on whether the nearly 65,000 preventable Covid-related deaths to date since April 30 — around when deaths from the massive BA1 omicron variant surge subsided — could constitute the pandemic being over.
If Biden was referring to the emergency phase of the pandemic being over, his statement is in some ways correct — at least for now.
If Biden was referring to the emergency phase of the pandemic being over, his statement is in some ways correct — at least for now. This is largely because the health care system is not currently overwhelmed by Covid patients, vaccines are widely available (including for children), there are substantial levels of hybrid immunity (for the moment) and we have very effective prophylactics and treatments for those who are vulnerable to a severe outcome.
However, we are still dealing with a crisis. Even though Biden also said that “we still have a problem with Covid,” if he’s saying the pandemic is over, it becomes unclear what the scope of the remaining Covid problem is and what exactly needs to be done about it.
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