Biden says COVID-19 pandemic is
In one Interview on “60 Minutes”. Sunday night, President Biden said The COVID-19 pandemic is “over” in the United States.
“The pandemic is over. We still have a problem with COVID. We’re still very much working on it. … But the pandemic is over,” Mr. Biden said. .
The interview was conducted while he was walking the floor of the Detroit Auto Show last week. Gesturing around the hall, Mr. Biden observed, “If you notice, nobody’s wearing a mask. Everybody looks in great shape. And so I think that’s changing. And I think this is a perfect example of that.”
Mr. Biden’s comments came just weeks after his administration asked Congress for billions of dollars to sustain testing and vaccination efforts.
The comments contradicted statements by his own aides earlier this month, who urged Americans to Updated booster Before the terrible fall and winter wave of viruses.
“The pandemic is not over. And we will remain vigilant, and of course, we will continue to look for and prepare for unexpected twists and turns,” the White House’s top COVID-19 official, Dr. Ashish Jha, told reporters. On September 6.
There are COVID-19 deaths. Still average About 400 a day nationwide, the level that federal health officials have. Condemned As in “still too much.”
Officials have also signaled a public health emergency. Announcement It is expected to be renewed at least once more this year for COVID-19.
But COVID restrictions in the U.S. have been largely lifted by local health departments and travel has returned to pre-pandemic levels.
The rate of new hospitalizations due to the virus has also increased now. slowed down Dramatically in the wake of the summer wave driven by the BA.4 and BA.5 subtypes of Omicron. Officials have credited vaccines and widespread immunity from prior infections, as well as increased use of COVID-19 treatments such as Pfizer’s Paxlovid, to help stem the virus’ claimed toll despite a wave of summer infections. .
Jha and others have painted the fall-booster push as part of helping to ensure that Americans continue to “go back to school, go back to work, and get back to their routines after summer.” .
But with the president’s pandemic funding requests still lingering in Congress, administration officials say they are now working to eliminate most of them. Federally subsidized Weapons of the COVID-19 response.
The president pointed to the pandemic as a major reason his approval rating is below 50%.
“It’s a really tough time,” he told CBS News correspondent Scott Pelley. “We’re at a turning point in the history of this country. We’re going to make decisions, and we’re making decisions right now, that are going to determine what we’re going to look like ten years from now. I would agree that the effects of the pandemic on the psyche of the American people are profound.”
“Think about how it changed everything. You know, about people themselves, about their families, about the state of the nation, about the state of their communities. And We lost a million people. A million people to COVID,” the president said.
“When I took office, when I was elected, only 2 million people had been vaccinated. I got 220 million—my point is, it takes time. We were left in a very difficult situation. It’s very It was a tough time. Very tough.”
CBS News’ Alexander Tin contributed reporting.