Is the COVID-19 pandemic over? President Biden’s answer is yes no yes no. The latest example of politically convenient pandemic schizophrenia came Thursday when the Department of Health and Human Services again extended the official public-health emergency, this time through January.
“The pandemic is over,” Mr. Biden told CBS’s “60 Minutes” only three weeks ago. “We still have a problem with COVID. We’re still doing a lot of work on it. But the pandemic is over.” Not to get all philosophical, but how can something be an emergency if it has already ended? The HHS statement this week says “a public health emergency exists and has existed since January 27, 2020, nationwide.”
This isn’t the only example of Mr. Biden talking from both sides of his N95 mask. When he decided to forgive student loans of up to $20,000 per person, the White House said this would “address the financial harms of the pandemic.” But the government had halted student loan payments since 2020, holding borrowers harmless. A month before he declared the pandemic “over,” Mr. Biden extended that student loan pause through Dec. 31.
On the southern border, the pandemic apparently ended in April, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention terminated President Trump’s policy of expelling migrants using Title 42 health powers. The CDC said this is “no longer necessary.” The agency cited “the development and widespread deployment of COVID-19 tests, vaccines, and therapeutics.”
A judge held that the Biden Administration couldn’t stop Title 42 enforcement, at least for now. But it’s another example of Mr. Biden’s choose-your-own-pandemic policy. Whether the crisis is over varies by agency and depends on what the White House is trying to accomplish. The HHS extension this week will freeze state Medicaid rolls and prevent ineligible recipients from being removed.
Certain work requirements for food stamps are also on hold. Yet businesses need help. Unemployment is 1.9% in Minnesota, 2% in New Hampshire, and 2.5% in Missouri. Maybe Mr. Biden hopes to keep the emergency going until the end of the next recession.