The Pandemic is Over—Legally
It’s official—the national emergency over COVID-19 is now over. The President Monday signed a piece of paper saying so, somewhat surprisingly.
That’s because Republicans led the effort to have the emergency ended sooner than the White House wanted. The White House had planned to end emergency declarations May 11…but that led some to ask what was magical about that date. When the White House had no good answer, Congress…in a bipartisan way…voted to end it immediately.
The White House had said the legislation would, in their words, “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.” Apparently they changed their mind, and the measure was signed.
So the pandemic is over, officially. But while federal funding is no longer at issue, are we going to go back and—knowing more now than we did then—restore pay, benefits and rank for those members of the military forced out because of a misguided vaccination requirement? What about those who were forced out of private sector jobs due to employer fear of government retribution…where do they go to get their careers back?
What about mask rules on flights? What about mask rules in blue cities around the country…still to this day?
Tricky stuff for those folks. If they remove the rules now, they’ll be exposed as tools of the government. If they stay with the mask requirements, they’ll be exposed as making unnecessary requirements and doubling down on virtue signaling.
In other words, usually when some proclamation ending something is signed…we see a change in behavior and governmental action. When might that actually start here?
