The White House’s Department of Health and Human Services has decided to extend the COVID-19 state of emergency yet again following an announcement from Health and Human Services’s Xavier Becerra, stating, “Renewal of Determination that a Public Health Emergency Exists.”
The Anger
Many have been angered by the Biden Administrations’ decision to extend the COVID-19 state of emergency due to comments Biden made in September 2022, when he said the COVID-19 pandemic “is over,” then later was quoted saying “If you notice, no one’s wearing a mask, everybody seems to be in pretty good shape.”
This comes following the discovery of the newest COVID-19 variant, XBB.1.5, the latest COVID-19 subvariant to be detected by the CDC and WHO. XBB1.5 is a subvariant of the Omicron COVID-19 variant. The newest strain is said to be moving through the country rapidly, doubling in cases nearly every two weeks, and within a short amount of time, it can be expected that XBB1.5 will make up the majority of new COVID-19 cases in early 2023.
According to the New York Post:
XBB.1.5 has spread quickly across the northeastern US and accounts for about 41% of confirmed COVID cases across the nation, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows.
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s COVID-19 technical lead, warned that the number of people infected with XBB.1.5 has doubled in the US about every two weeks.
“The reason for this are the mutations that are within this subvariant of Omicron allowing this virus to adhere to the cell and replace easily,” she said.
Poor Performance
Perhaps worst of all, the vaccines can be considered less effective than they were before, as XBB.1.5 is also extremely prone to dodging antibodies and is believed to bind even more tightly to cells.
Fortunately, similar to previous strains of COVID that we’ve seen since 2020, the death rate XBB1.5 also points to this new strain of the virus being more of the same – extremely low and only should be considered a major health risk to those with multiple preexisting conditions.
The news came in a few weeks ago about the XBB.1.5 variant, however, it was unknown a few weeks ago how Democrat leaders would respond to a new variant of COVID-19 having been detected, and how the regular uptick in the numbers of illnesses due to the winter months would affect their decision. Many previously assumed that California and the Biden Administration would overreact yet again, and sadly it turned out to be true, as the United States has extended its unprecedentedly long state of emergency, and California seeks to vote on whether or not to end its state of emergency.
The Statement
The full statement from Health and Human Services’s Xavier Becerra reads:
“As a result of the continued consequences of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, on this date and after consultation with public health officials as necessary, I, Xavier Becerra, Secretary of Health and Human Services, pursuant to the authority vested in me under section 319 of the Public Health Service Act, do hereby renew, effective January 11, 2023, the January 31, 2020, determination by former Secretary Alex M. Azar II, that he previously renewed on April 21, 2020, July 23, 2020, October 2, 2020, and January 7, 2021, and that I renewed on April 15, 2021, July 19, 2021, October 15, 2021, January 14, 2022, April 12, 2022, July 15, 2022, and October 13, 2022, that a public health emergency exists and has existed since January 27, 2020, nationwide.”
