Why wait till May? Why not right now, especially since Biden himself said COVID was over back in September
President Biden to end COVID-19 emergencies on May 11
President Joe Biden informed Congress on Monday that he will end the twin national emergencies for addressing COVID-19 on May 11, as most of the world has returned closer to normalcy nearly three years after they were first declared.
The move to end the national emergency and public health emergency declarations would formally restructure the federal coronavirus response to treat the virus as an endemic threat to public health that can be managed through agencies’ normal authorities.
It comes as lawmakers have already ended elements of the emergencies that kept millions of Americans insured during the pandemic. Combined with the drawdown of most federal COVID-19 relief money, it would also shift the development of vaccines and treatments away from the direct management of the federal government.
Biden’s announcement comes in a statement opposing resolutions being brought to the floor this week by House Republicans to bring the emergency to an immediate end. House Republicans are also gearing up to launch investigations on the federal government’s response to COVID-19.
If COVID is over, it’s over. The end isn’t some arbitrary date in the future, right? So, why wait?
Moments before the White House’s announcement, Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., accused the president of unnecessarily extending the public health emergency to take action on issues like forgiving some federal student loan debts.
Hmm, what will Biden and his Comrades try over the next almost 3 1/2 months based on the emergency powers? Because once it ends any authorization for student loan cancellation ends. And government workers need to go back to work in their offices. Oops.
OH HELL NO. Once we have tasted freedom, going back into chains is not an option. The negotiation is now about how many days need to be in office. Emplopyees are voting with their feet. Government is taking notice that to attract the most diverse and inclusive workforce, they MUST include telework as part of the normal environment. Otherwise, they just get a bunch of old white guys.
This is seriously upsetting massive government bureaucracies and the rules they exist on. For example, pay is based on locality. People who work in DC get paid more than people who work in Kansas, for doing the same job. But if anyone can work from anywhere, then a person working from HOME in Kansas to perform work in DC might still be getting his DC locality pay. The government, of course, would like to pay Kansas people the lower Kansas rate. So job descriptions are being relooked to determine if location is an essential element of the task being performed and if telework is part time or full time. There are options that were never considered by the dinosaur skin Byzantine federal bureaucracy before COVID. Now, even if management would never consider it, EVERY employee has recent experience with it and likes it.
It is worth noting, considering the recent presidential document scandal, that with COVID, LOTS of people now have full time access to classified documents in their homes. THOUSANDS of people. They just have an encrypted computer with a secure VPN connection and all the documents from their secure offices are at their fingertips. Not for TOP secret use, yet, but the technology and trust in the technology keeps improving. People who still think classified secrets need a paper backbone to exist are living in the distant past. Document transfer on networked computers has been a thing for decades.
Define over.
In the last two days there have been around 15,000 new cases.
Death rates and hospitalizations have decreased dramatically with the availability of the new anti-viral drugs.
These drugs are currently free. So there is no reluctance for non-insured people to go to the doctor and get treated.
What will happen when this ends?