Madison Kwiecinski – Editor-in-Chief 

Mvk5945@psu.edu

President Joe Biden has declared that he will end the double national emergencies that have been in place to address the COVID-19 pandemic on May 11. Three years later, the world has returned to a state close enough to normalcy to end the twin emergencies that have been in place. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over 1.1 million people in the United States have died from COVID-19, with 3,700 of those deaths occurring within the last week in January.  

Essentially, having the national and public health emergencies in place allowed for the threat of the coronavirus to be dealt with in a more direct and urgent manner than could have been accomplished otherwise through federal agencies normal levels of authority. 

On May 11 when the declaration ends, the process of handling the coronavirus threat will be dealt with the same way an endemic threat to public health would be, through typical authorities.

However, According to AP, “lawmakers have already ended elements of the emergencies that kept millions of Americans insured during the pandemic.” The number of insured Americans may be heavily altered by the ending of these emergencies. 

House Republicans were reportedly going to bring a resolution to the floor to bring the emergency declaration to an immediate end, but Biden’s announcement of their closure negated the need. House Republicans are also currently preparing to launch an investigation into the Biden Administration’s response to the pandemic, as well as the federal government’s overall rule and whether it was overstepped. 

The original public health emergency was declared on Jan. 31, 2020 by former President Donald Trump. The emergency declaration was also declared under Trump in March of 2020. Since Biden took office in 2021 both emergencies have been extended multiple times. 

The Office of Management and Budget released a statement of Administration Policy that read, “An abrupt end to the emergency declarations would create wide-ranging chaos and uncertainty throughout the health care system – for states, for hospitals and doctors’ offices, and, most importantly, for tens of millions of Americans.” 

One provision of the public health emergency made it so that states were prohibited from kicking people off of Medicaid, something that will very soon end removing coverage from millions who enrolled in the program during the pandemic. Medicaid provides approximately 80 million low-income individuals with health care coverage across the country. People may begin being kicked out of the program as early as April, though they will be required to send out notifications first informing those who are being kicked off. 

“The costs of COVID-19 vaccines are also expected to skyrocket once the government stops buying them, with Pfizer saying it will charge as much as $130 per dose,” AP reports. “Only 15 percent of Americans have received the recommended, updated booster that has been offered since last fall.” 

With many Americans currently tired of the pandemic, and many lawmakers calling for its end, it is no surprise a deadline has been laid out for when they will end. 

“To be clear, continuation of these emergency declarations until May 11 does not impose any restrictions at all on individual conduct with regard to COVID-19,” the administration said. “They do not impose mask mandates or vaccine mandates. They do not restrict school or business operations. They do not require the use of any medicines or tests in response to cases of COVID-19.”