US President Joseph Biden declares COVID pandemic “end” in an interview with CBS News aired on Sunday night, as the country eases many of its restrictions during the pandemic.
Biden’s views on the pandemic were captured on Wednesday, during the president’s visit to the 2022 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. This year’s conference is the first since 2019, after organizers canceled performances in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID pandemic.
Biden’s comments on COVID were not part of his prepared remarks, reports Politico.
The US President noted the growing public fatigue with COVID measures. “No one wears a mask. Everyone seems to be in pretty good shape, “Biden speak. However, the president warning The US still has “a problem with COVID”, and said the government “is still doing a lot of work on it.”
The White House is negotiate with Congress to free up tens of billions of dollars in funding to pay for vaccines, treatments, and testing. Biden officials are warning that without new funds, the United States may no longer provide vaccines and treatments free.
End line?
Biden’s words repeat previous comments from Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to the White House. In August, Fauci told National public radio station that he expected COVID to become “a more endemic condition” by December.
While COVID “will not be eliminated and will not be eliminated,” Fauci said, the disease will become “something we can live with and not bother us”.
The World Health Organization is also predict that the COVID pandemic may be coming to an end. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the “pandemic is near” during a press conference on Wednesday. The number of daily COVID deaths worldwide is near record lowAccording to WHO.
However, Tedros warned against complacency, saying that although the world “can see the finish line”, governments still need to vaccinate at-risk individuals and monitor for new variants. “Now is the worst time to stop running,” Tedros said.
‘Deep impact
In Sunday’s interview, the president discussion the “profound” impact of COVID. “Think about how [COVID] changed everything. You know, people’s attitudes about themselves, about their families, about the state of the nation, about the state of their community,” he said.
In mid-August, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shrink Their recommendations for people exposed to the coronavirus through close contact, instead recommend daily testing and mask wearing rather than isolation.
Major US companies are also pulling back their COVID restrictions, with big Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs remove their last remaining COVID restrictions on direct work.
As of Friday, the US had a seven-day daily average of 60,800 COVID cases and 390 deaths as the country emerged from a summer wave fueled by the BA.5 variant. CDC report that 67.7% of Americans received two doses of the COVID vaccine and about 32.9% received a booster.
The United States recently approved double price vaccine are from Pfizer and Modernatargeted both the original coronavirus strain as well as the new BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariables.
The White House now scheduled an annual COVID vaccine, similar to the flu shot. But Worried health professionals that the United States is making the mistake of comparing COVID to the flu, noting that the annual boosters will not provide enough protection to keep up with the rapidly mutating coronavirus.
Register Fortune feature email list so you don’t miss our biggest features, exclusive interviews and surveys.
