In a letter to the House Speaker and Senate President Friday, President Joe Biden extended the national COVID-19 emergency pandemic indefinitely.
“There remains a need to continue this national emergency,” Biden wrote, adding:
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause significant risk to the public health and safety of the Nation. More than 900,000 people in this Nation have perished from the disease, and it is essential to continue to combat and respond to COVID-19 with the full capacity and capability of the Federal Government.
Biden said in his letter he was extending the national emergency in accordance with the National Emergencies Act’s procedure for its continuation.
“I have sent to the Federal Register for publication the enclosed notice stating that the national emergency declared in Proclamation 9994 of March 13, 2020, beginning March 1, 2020, concerning the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, is to continue in effect beyond March 1, 2022,” he wrote.
“Therefore, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared in Proclamation 9994 concerning the COVID-19 pandemic,” Biden added.
Biden can’t give up his authoritarian chokehold on your life. He needs an excuse for unsolicited mail in ballots for upcoming midterm elections to justify his reckless and irresponsible spending of your children's and grandchildren's future. Criminal!! https://t.co/hYV25gxE8W
— Ronny Jackson (@RonnyJacksonTX) February 21, 2022
The move to extend the national COVID emergency comes as a number of Democrat governors are ending some of their COVID mandates, including New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Illinois.
U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) introduced legislation last week that sought an end to the national emergency declaration.
The bill would revoke many of the federal government’s extended powers regarding the pandemic, Fox News reported, adding that Congress has the duty to determine whether an emergency under the National Emergencies Act should be extended, but, to date, has mostly abdicated its role to the executive branch.
Marshall told Fox News Digital:
With COVID cases and hospitalizations on the decline, 94 percent of Americans having immunity to COVID, mask mandates falling by the wayside, and 70 percent of Americans agreeing ‘it’s time we accept that COVID is here to stay’ and that ‘we just need to get on with our lives,’ it’s clear we need a new approach to COVID as we learn to live with it.
“That new approach starts with putting an end to the COVID national state of emergency,” the senator added.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes on its website that, as of mid-February, 923,000 deaths have been attributed to COVID-19, with about 75 percent of them in individuals in the 65-and-over age group.
The most frequently listed comorbidities with COVID-19 deaths have been influenza and pneumonia (48.9 percent), hypertension (18.3 percent), and diabetes (15.1 percent).
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Susan Berry, PhD is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Joe Biden” by The White House.
