BIDEN ADMINISTRATION TO KEEP FIGHTING COVID WAR: EMERGENCY STATUS IN PLACE

The COVID War, launched by China in January 2020 in celebration of its Lunar New Year, “The Year of the Rat,” was designated a National Emergency by President Donald Trump on Black Friday, 13 March 2020.

Now, nearly three years later, President Joe Biden signals that he will keep the designation in place despite the sharp drop in deaths allegedly attributed from the virus.

Back on 14 November 2021, the U.S. seven-day average COVID death total was 1,138. One year later, on 14 November 2022, the seven-day average was 279. 

The Wall Street Journal noted in a report last week that the Department of Health and Human Services has informed states that they will receive a 60-day notice when the emergency order will be lifted, but no warning has been issued. 

Sarah Lovenheim, the assistant secretary for public affairs at the department, told the paper that the department will give these states the notice when there is a consensus to drop the emergency status.

TRENDPOST: It is worth noting that President Joe Biden announced in an interview last month that the “pandemic” was over. (See “WEEKS AFTER BIDEN DECLARES COVID ‘PANDEMIC OVER,’ WHITE HOUSE EXTENDS PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY.”) 

Weeks later, his administration announced that it renewed the COVID-19 public health emergency status for another 90 days. Under the new guidelines, the public health emergency will be extended through 11 January. 

Former President Donald Trump imposed a national State of Emergency on Black Friday, 13 March 2020 to fight the COVID War.

The health emergency enables the U.S. to keep certain health measures in place, such as pharmacists having the ability to administer vaccine shots and updates to Medicaid recipients who are not required to renew their eligibility.

Dr. Joel Zinberg, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and director of the Paragon Health Institute’s Public Health and American Well-Being Initiative, wrote in The New York Post that the White House’s hope is to expand the welfare state. 

“This has nothing to do with any emergency—it is to allow the administration to extend pandemic-era policies that expand the welfare state,” he wrote.

“The Urban Institute predicted nearly 16 million people could be cut from Medicaid rolls if the emergency ended after 2022’s third quarter. But Team Biden just confirmed it will renew the 90-day extension that expires in January, so the number will undoubtedly be higher,” he wrote.

Nothing about COVID-19 has ever been based on scientific data, so why start now? It has been about power. The COVID “threat” will always be out there, so it may very well be years—or a Ron DeSantis presidency—for the emergency measures to be dropped.