Jan 30
“WASHINGTON — The Biden administration plans to let the coronavirus public health emergency expire in May, the White House said on Monday. The move carries both symbolic weight and real-world consequences. Millions of Americans have received free Covid tests, treatments and vaccines during the pandemic, and not all of that will continue to be free once the emergency is over.

"An average of more than 500 people in the United States are still dying from Covid-19 each day, over twice the number of deaths per day during a bad seasonal flu season. Covid is not seasonal. It's with us 365 days a year. Thus, it is far more deadly than the flu.

"Still, the White House said that the nation needed a transition out of the public health emergency. The administration said it also intended to allow a separate declaration of a national emergency to expire on the same day, May 11.

"The end of the emergency will mean that some Americans may have to pay out of pocket for Covid treatments, such as Paxlovid, an antiviral pill. As a result, those who can't afford to do so may go without.

"Jennifer Kates, a senior vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation, said the emergency declaration had provided an important reprieve from the American health care system’s typically fractured way of covering the costs of care, giving more people access.

"‘The White House’s decision’, she added, ‘could also send the wrong message about how relaxed Americans should be about the virus.'

'To the extent that it might let people let their guard down from one day to the next, that could raise some challenges and cost lives'”

The New York Times