The U.S. now stands at 18 new COVID-19 cases per 100K population per day, down one from the end of last week.
Which is good, as the President seems to have said that the pandemic is over.
Still incurring about 350 deaths a day, and just over 4100 new hospitalizations per day.
Data source for this and other graphs of new case counts: Calculated from The New York Times. (2021). Coronavirus (Covid-19) Data in the United States. Retrieved 9/21/2022, from https://github.com/nytimes/covid-19-data.” The NY Times U.S. tracking page may be found at https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html
Technically, I think he got it right, but he could have made that statement any time in the past three months. No new variants are emerging, new case rates are relatively low and stable. Outside of the oldest old and stubbornly unvaccinated, deaths from COVID-19 are rare.
We seem to be muddling through toward “endemic COVID”. Both in the U.S. and internationally.
Source: Our World in Data
At this point, I would say that the only certainty here is that if cases rise again, the usual right-wing media will attack the President for having said it.
My only question about Biden’s statement is whether the executive branch has allowed all of the pandemic-related emergency powers to expire.
For example, the latest COVID vaccine was once again approved under an Emergency Use Authorization, not under the regular new-drug approval process. I realize that’s a convenience, and in this case, because this was just a tweak of an existing vaccine, allowed them to approve it without extensive human trials. But I do wonder why that’s still an acceptable process, given that the pandemic is over.
As far as reporting goes, the only thing I can find is that the President extended those emergency powers back in February 2022 (reference). As late as last month, I find reporting discussing what happens when those emergency powers end (reference).
Ah, finally, here’s one of the usual suspects lambasting the President for failing to end those pandemic-related emergency powers (reference). I assume it’s only a matter of time before the rest of the pack takes up the howl.
So, as a matter of fact, that emergency declaration has not been rescinded, and those emergency powers are still in place.
As much as I disagree with the right-wing screed above, I do agree with their main point. If the pandemic’s over, the emergency powers need to be rescinded. It’s as simple as that.
Otherwise, we are always at war with Eastasia. As with the two (or was it three?) random land wars we started, as part of our endless War on Terror, if the powers are granted and not rescinded, sooner or later, some President will find a way to abuse them.
If it’s over, it’s over, including the extraordinary powers. If it’s not, it’s not. We really can’t have the President talking out of both sides of his mouth on this issue.
