Biden says the pandemic is over. Here's why he's wrong, writes Gavin Yamey (GYamey), professor of global health and public policy at Duke University
before, the US cannot eliminate COVID-19 . We also cannot drive deaths down to zero, given that there will always be vulnerable people, especially among older Americans, and while our scientific tools for preventing death—vaccines, antivirals, and monoclonal antibodies—are highly effective, they are not 100% effective. But we certainlyachieve “low endemic levels”—in which there are low levels of severe illness, hospitalization, and deaths, perhaps with seasonal peaks.
Determining when America has transitioned out of the pandemic phase of COVID-19 to a “low endemic” phase would ideally be done through an inclusive, participatory process. Ole Norheim and colleagues at the University of Bergen, Norway havethat such a process—involving, for example, hearings, town halls, and citizen panels, “can contribute to more trustworthy and legitimate decisions on difficult ethical questions and political trade-offs during the pandemic and beyond.
But the major problem with the President saying the pandemic is “over” is that it could impede our efforts to reach low endemic levels. For example, Congress is less likely to renew funding for COVID-19 measures if the pandemic has “ended.” And the public may hear the message that COVID-19 is “done” and be less likely to get the new bivalent booster—the first vaccine tailored to the current virus variants.
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