Biden is right. The pandemic is over.

[comradebillyboy]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/09/19/biden-covid-pandemic-over/

President Biden’s off-the-cuff comment during a “60 Minutes” interview that “the pandemic is over” has sparked outrage from all sides. Republicans are accusing Biden of hypocrisy as he asks Congress for more covid-19 funding, while some on the left point to the disease’s continued death toll as evidence that the pandemic is nowhere near its finish line.

These criticisms don’t detract from Biden’s point. He’s right. By multiple definitions, the pandemic is over. That doesn’t mean that the coronavirus is no longer causing harm; it simply signals the end of an emergency state as covid has evolved into an endemic disease.

A pandemic is something that upends our daily lives and profoundly alters the way that we work, go to school, worship and socialize. That was certainly the case in March 2020. I was among the public health experts who urged people to “stay home, save lives.” We called for Americans to avoid “play dates, sleepovers, bars, restaurants, parties or houses of worship.” Employers sent workers home en masse. Schools pivoted to remote instruction.

Things changed with the arrival of vaccines. Many individuals, once vaccinated, began resuming their pre-pandemic activities. Others, like my family, waited until younger kids could receive the shots. By now, the vast majority of Americans have been vaccinated or recovered from covid-19 or both. The preventive antibody Evusheld and treatments such as Paxlovid and monoclonal antibodies provide further protection against severe illness.

[Peacetrain]

1. That is what we heard from a bio chemist last week.. that it is now becoming Endemic

and we will learn to live with it just as we did the flu.. it will still kills thousands in the US.. as the flu kills hundreds of thousands a year now worldwide..

Edit post to add : https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2017/p1213-flu-death-estimate.html

[WhiskeyGrinder]

6. The flu does not kill hundreds of thousands -- in the U.S., anyway, which is what I assume you meant

by "we." The CDC estimates 5,000-14,000 people died from flu from October 2021 to June 2022. Right now we've got about 12,000 people dying every month in the U.S. from covid.

[Peacetrain]

12. it was worldwide.. and I just re read my post and I had not put that down

I had in another post.. https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2017/p1213-flu-death-estimate.html

[GreenWave]

33. But most of the 12 grand are Covidiots.

Darwin at work while we sleep.

[OMGWTF]

39. Astrophysist Neil DeGrasse Tyson said it could be enough to swing elections to the Dems.

[Farmer-Rick]

36. Good catch

I assumed the post was based on world wide numbers.

But still COVID is not even down to flu levels.

"The current 7-day moving average of new deaths (358) increased 3.9% compared with the previous 7-day moving average (344). As of September 14, 2022, a total of 1,047,020 COVID-19 deaths have been reported in the United States."

About 127,000 deaths a year from COVID in the US alone. The US only makes up about 4.25% of the total world population.

[Magoo48]

8. ref. please for flu killing "hundreds of thousands per year".

Are you speaking globally or only the US?

[Peacetrain]

13. world wide.. I forgot to put that in my post..

https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2017/p1213-flu-death-estimate.html

[Cracklin Charlie]

2. I agree.

Yes, we must remain vigilant, and do all we can to avoid it going forward…but, the pandemic phase of covid is over.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. But of course Leana Wen would agree. Her disregard of vulnerable communities and the effects of

long covid makes it easy to pretend it's all over.

[Beetwasher.]

14. As Someone Who Works in Healthcare, Serving Vulnerable Communities as well as Conducting

Epidemiological research on COVID, because we're also vaccinating these vulnerable populations and collecting, analyzing and publishing the data, would you say I disregard these communities? Because from the perspective of myself and my colleagues, the pandemic is over and we are in an endemic phase. No one is saying it's ALL over, but it's really not a pandemic anymore.

[Elessar Zappa]

30. It's not over but it's no longer in the pandemic phase.

You can argue with that until you’re blue in the face but it doesn’t change the facts.

[getagrip_already]

4. as a matter of historical usage, a pandemic is said to be over....

When society decides it is over.

The flu has taken a serious death toll every year since the pandemic early in the 20th century. So when did it end? It ended when society decided it was over and moved on.

Yes, people still died. Some, with long flu, or who were born to mothers with the flu, suffered for decades. There were coincident eruptions of mysterious diseases like encephalitis lethargica.

But the medical community and the public at large decided that the "crisis" had subsided to a manageable level.

And so it has gone since pandemics existed.

[dalton99a]

11. +1.

[relayerbob]

5. No one cares about reality

Why bring facts into the political discourse?

[tritsofme]

7. Exactly, Covid is never going away. We can't be on emergency footing forever.

[dalton99a]

9. Mask mandates are no longer justifiable

(except in a healthcare setting)

People at risk should continue to take precautions to protect themselves

[WhiskeyGrinder]

20. Speaking of masks, for people with higher risks, masks on *other people* is what protects them.

[ProfessorGAC]

49. Not Completely Accurate

The early pronouncements about the lack of personal protection from masks displayed a gross lack of knowledge regarding surface chemistry & 2 phase flow.
Certainly the protection is increased by others wearing masks. But, masking offers protection to the wearer under any circumstances.

[nilram]

23. Mask mandates have never been justifiable

to those who care only about themselves.

[True Blue American]

10. Basically it is over. Some who has shots have mild cases, nut the bad ones

Are those who refuse to get the shots. My kids just had a mild case. Bad headaches, congestion. They are negative now.

[peacebuzzard]

15. mask mandates are lifted, but I still wear a mask

I have 5 vaccines for this virus, but the covid finally got me in June.(the latest variant prior to the target vaccine)
It truly floored me and I was quite debilitated for weeks, and still feel some of the after effects. I want to avoid another episode of any type of flu/virus contagion. I have found the mask has also prevented the multiple effects of other circulating virus, allergy particles and random communicable systemic invaders.
I have succeeded in evading the seasonal allergies for the most part and I am happier for it. The mask can be somewhat irritating, but the benefits for me have outweighed the potential harm.

[comradebillyboy]

17. My wife feels the same way. She says the mask filters out

a lot of pollen and dust in the air so she often wears one.

[peacebuzzard]

19. I skirted seasonal allergies this spring

In years past, the allergies were unbearable. Since masking, even though I spent quite a bit of time in my huge yard and back woods without a mask I didn't come down with the seasonal ailments

In previous years I blamed my yard and mama nature for the seasonal allergies, these past two years the yard and nature were not the culprits.

[Tomconroy]

16. For the vaxxed and boosted Covid long ago ceased to be a threat.

[progressoid]

40. Not necessarily. My father is vaxxed and boosted yet still had to be hospitalized with Covid a

couple months ago. He's still suffering from the lingering effects.

[inthewind21]

18. Why would

any republicans object. The don't think it existed at all. Or did they have another whip lash moment?

[Traildogbob]

21. My first thought

Watch Cruz and the Howling Monkeys jump on Joe for saying this and condemning thousands more to die………from a hoax virus. I really never understood what MAGA’s did not jump at the chance to wear masks just to cover the ugly up. Have ya seen those mugs at KKKlan rallies? It’s like they pick the most horrendous faces to put back there for scare tactics. Indict trump and these terrifying faces will attack us all. And they ain’t Halloween costumes. Hate makes ya ugly.
Hell, I look 30 years younger in a mask. I may never stop.

[Rural_Progressive]

22. Let's see, at the current rate of 400 deaths per day in the US

if things continue that will result in 146,000 deaths per year. That of course doesn't address the issue of long covid which will remain a millstone around the neck of the health care system for who knows how long.

But as was pointed out, a pandemic is over when a society says it is. Given that the handling of this entire event has been a giant clusterf*ck, this decision doesn't surprise me at all.

Considering this is still an evolving novel virus and that nature always bats last, I guess we'll see how it all comes out.

[AZLD4Candidate]

24. You are never going to get a viral disease to zero.

[Orrex]

34. Not even for small pox?

Also, literally no one is demanding zero deaths as the standard. But can you perhaps imagine some point of compromise between zero deaths and 144K deaths?

[AZLD4Candidate]

42. Why not influenza? That causes almost 55k death a year.

And how many of those are idiots that refuse to get a shot because of some idiotic reason?

The best ones I've heard is "medical condition" with no paperwork from anyone showing it, religious reasons, and (my favorite) allergy to the vaccine.

For those, I have little sympathy. Right now, COVID is a completely treatable and preventable disease.

[womanofthehills]

64. Flu deaths are estimated- not actual counts like Covid deaths

Number Of COVID-19 Deaths Is Based On Actual Reports; Flu Deaths Are Estimates
Comparing COVID-19 With The Flu Isn't Really Fair, Doctor Says

An actual death count doesn't exist, in part because of statutes such as Wisconsin's that only require providers to report pediatric deaths from influenza. It's voluntary to report flu deaths from adults. Additionally, Wisconsin does not require influenza testing to be reported.

"Influenza ascertainment has always been nebulous," he said. 'In the best circumstances, we can assess what happens within a clinical population."https://www.wpr.org/number-covid-19-deaths-based-actual-reports-flu-deaths-are-estimates

[Tomconroy]

35. How many of those are excess deaths?

How many had comorbidities and would have died anyway?

[AZLD4Candidate]

43. After three years of fear and paranoia, there is no logic anymore

I know it's not contagious but Heart Disease and Cancer are the two leading causes of pre-mature death in the US.

But after three years of "the world is coming to an end," it's hard to get out of that mindset for a lot of people.

[inthewind21]

57. Bingo

[TheBlackAdder]

25. Daughter was the only one wearing a mask at a Cuban festival in Union City, NJ on Saturday.

.

She just texted me today that one of her co-workers, who was with her, just tested positive for COVID.

.

[XanaDUer2]

26. I brought covid home

From a mask-optional doctor's office. Pisssed doesn't even describe how we feel.

[Jirel]

29. Time to find a new doctor?

My docs’ offices are very much mask-REQUIRED, and have a strict rule that if you have ANY symptoms, you will go home and be rescheduled. A few weeks ago I was at one of those office and an idiot with a hacking cough kept taking her mask off TO COUGH, when in the secondary waiting room where it wasn’t right in front of staff. I reported her, told them they can find me in the main waiting room away from her, and luckily they took action. Apparently I wasn’t the only one - a couple other patients also had words with the front desk staff about how she was handled.

Interestingly, when I returned for follow-up, the office was unusually quiet, several docs were absent, and many of the usual staff were too, other than the staff who only worked the front office and outer waiting room. Can’t prove it, but I suspect a small outbreak in that office. It only takes one plague rat with zero consideration for others.

[XanaDUer2]

31. I don't ever want to go back to that eye doctor

EVERY OTHER OFFICE requires masks

[nitpicker]

54. When I went in to be eye-lasered

The doctor took one look at my reused mask and issued me a fresh one.

[Jirel]

27. He is very wrong, and those words have consequences.

While we are transitioning to a new normal where yearly boosters will likely be the new norm, and more treatments are available, in many parts of the country like mine, where plague rats refuse to vaccinate, mask, or stay home when they have suspicious symptoms (no testing, of course, no no), it’s still bad. The words of a president have tremendous power in how the situation is treated. The civil and criminal courts in my area have been operating under emergency orders (numbering about 100 by now!) for 2 years. Now, they will have to reevaluate and likely end ir radically revise. In overcrowded courts where it was already risky, this will cause huge problems. Similarly, I just talked to the chief judge in an administrative court where I practice. He is upset by this for good reason. The entire system was restructured when COVID hit, and it has just started working pretty well. Now they’ve been starting to SLOWLY roll back some of the changes, and it’s disruptive. But now that he said the pandemic is over? This is going to be the start of an less controlled, much more rapid change that will be especially dangerous to many I’ll and immune-compromised claimants.

These comments are not something a president can say without consequences, and there will be some bad ones.

[inthewind21]

58. Refusing

to be preventative is not the same as "We're all still in full blown pandemic". Its not going away, thanks to those who refused to make even the slightest attempt to prevent it.

[Snackshack]

28. Fucking GOP

They spent the entire pandemic lying there was no pandemic that it is a hoax and now they are crying because President Biden agrees with them.

[róisín_dubh]

32. I've had 4 shots, including the bi-valent booster.

And yet I still can't go to my best friend's civil ceremony tomorrow because there will be vulnerable people there (some of whom traveled from abroad- by plane- to get here...but I digress). I get it. I was exposed on the weekend by someone who had tested positive for COVID well over a week prior and whose symptoms were gone. So the chances of me being infected in the first instance were low. I planned to do a PCR test tomorrow morning. However, my friend is a nurse and out of abundance of caution, she asked me not to come. I'm bitter as hell, but what can I do? I'll just wait for the big party next summer.

[bucolic_frolic]

37. Federal funds will stop flowing everywhere

[IronLionZion]

38. GOP has been trying to extend the pandemic as long as they can

by encouraging their idiot voters to avoid masks, vaccines, and any basic consideration for others. They're trying to block funding for updated vaccines and treatments

[maxsolomon]

41. I heard a guest on Amy Goodman's show this morning

say the AIDS Pandemic isn't over - 40 years later. It depends on how you define a Pandemic.

"If there's no panic; it's Endemic". I just made that up.

[Zeitghost]

44. Pandemics

Are periods of out of control growth and spread.

[maxsolomon]

45. Yeah, he was definitely on the "Biden shouldn't have said that" side.

He also criticized the leader of the WHO saying "the end of the Pandemic is in sight".

[Zeitghost]

46. Some people seem to have a vested interest

In the pandemic never ending.

President Biden was correct and it's nice to see he's not playing politics.

[maxsolomon]

51. Or is he? Good news is good politics.

There's a deep pessimism in the country, despite so much real progress since * got the boot, and Dems have to struggle against that to hold Congress.

The Pandemic has been really hard on almost all of us. Saying there's light at the end of the tunnel is smart, and in many ways, it's just acknowledging reality. I don't see much mask discipline out there any more - even in Seattle.

[EnergizedLib]

47. I don't see how

It’s still very much a serious threat to people, just that people have decided to stop taking it seriously.

I personally still mask up and don’t shake hands with people, haven’t since March 2020.

[inthewind21]

59. There's

a whole host of things out there that are very much a serious threat to people. Should we classify them all as active pandemics?

[EnergizedLib]

65. Well

Are they necessarily contagious, airborne, can so permanent damage and is widespread worldwide?

[inthewind21]

79. Yes

Lists of them are readily available to anyone who wants to see them.

[Shanti Shanti Shanti]

48. The CDC and WHO both say the COVID pandemic is still on-going, I will listen to them

[mackdaddy]

50. COVID has now dropped from Pandemic to an ENDEMIC Disease.

Not that it is not still dangerous and contagious, Just not spreading out of control.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says an endemicTrusted Source is “the constant presence and/or usual prevalence of a disease or infectious agent in a population within a geographic area.”

To put it another way, an endemic disease is consistently present, but it spreads at predictable rates that can be managed by communities.

These rates may be higher than desired levels, however. Currently, infections with SARS-CoV-2 and the resulting COVID-19 disease remain very high across the United States and the world.

But the number of new cases each day is beginning to stabilize. That is one sign the pandemic may be transitioning to endemic status.

https://www.healthline.com/health/what-is-an-endemic#endemic-definition

[ProfessorGAC]

52. Agreed!

Did I miss the memo?
Is it our turn to ignore what scientists are saying?
I thought we were against science denial.
Birney doesn't pretend to be an expert. This is what the epidemiologists are telling him!
He's relaying what the experts have declared.

[Calculating]

53. As far as I'm concerned it's over

I was vaxxed with j&j and caught omicron back in March. It was like a somewhere mild cold and I got over it with no lingering problems. Since then I haven't worn a mask once and have been around lots of crowded places without catching COVID again. I assume my immune system is working as intended and with vax+experience COVID will be more like the cold going forward.

[nitpicker]

55. A better message could have been

"It's nowhere near the deaths in mid-February, which was almost 68 thousand for 28 days, but over 12 thousand over the last four weeks is nothing to sneeze at. PLEASE get your shots and boosters if you can."

[nitpicker]

56. In contrast

2021 road deaths were almost 43 thousand a year.

[Meowmee]

61. With hundreds still dying per day

No, it is not over. And that is also disrespectful also to those who have truly suffered and who lost loved ones. We will not be ignored nor swept under the rug. You can’t pretend we don’t exist and we deserve to be compensated.

[inthewind21]

62. It will

NEVER be over. No, it's not disrespectful to anyone. how are you being ignored and swept under the rug? And exactly what is it you think you should be compensated for?

[Tomconroy]

78. Compensated?

[Just A Box Of Rain]

63. I have other thoughts.

I love Joe Biden, but this is an extremely rare time when he and I part ways.

I will continue to mask, with N95/KN95/KF94 style masks in public.

Thus far I've (knock wood) avoided getting Covid, which may involve some "luck," but I've also been careful. That won't change despite having 5 doses.

While deaths from Covid are dramatically reduced by being vaccinated, it isn't so clear that one can escape from the risks of so-called "Long Covid."

Long Covid seems indistinguishable from ME/CFS, and that's one of the worst chronic illnesses a person can acquire. It is a condition that the vast majority of people never recover from.

In the coming decades society, I'm afraid, is going to need to contend with significant numbers of people who are permanently disabled by post-viral illness.

Masking is helpful.

[inthewind21]

66. You mean

the same way having the flu might lead to pneumonia with long term effects? COVID is NOT the ONLY illness out there that can cause long term issues. In fact, pretty much ALL illness can given the right circumstances. COVID is not special in that regard. It's just the newest one.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

67. Not a bit.

The incidence of a life-long and extremely severe post-viral chronic illness is shockingly high with Covid/Long Covid. That's not true of influenza.

Don't conflate drastically different illnesses.

Covid is VERY different with regard to triggering chronic post-viral illness.

Please don't spread disinformation.

[inthewind21]

68. Yeah

ok

[Just A Box Of Rain]

69. You would do well to study up on Long Covid.

Then you would not be so dismissive to the reality of the situation.

There is no comparison with influenza in this regard.

[inthewind21]

71. Sure thing

You would also do well to to study up on things other than COVID. Then maybe you wouldn't be so dismissive to reality. It's out there. All you have to do is look. But hey, I'll do it for you

According to Trinkl and his colleagues, 17.6% of patients hospitalized for flu had new symptoms after their acute illness compared with 15.5% of those hospitalized for other viral pneumonias and 13.9% of those hospitalized for COVID-19. The symptoms included in their study included fatigue, loss of smell or taste, heart palpitations, chest pain, difficulty breathing, myalgia (muscle pain) and brain fog. The research focused on symptoms for which patients sought care starting 28 days after the acute illness was over and during the following five months (in other words, between 28 and 180 days after the acute illness was over).

https://www.managedhealthcareexecutive.com/view/it-s-not-just-covid-there-s-also-long-flu-and-pneumonia

What were you saying again about disinformation?

[Just A Box Of Rain]

72. I do have a university degree and am a curious fellow who always endeavors to learn new things.

I'm NOT dismissive of reality and that's why I urge you not to spread the sort of disinformation that trivializes the risks of Long Covid by comparing them with influenza.

Such conflations are false and dangerous.

[inthewind21]

74. Oh well you have a University Degree!

You think you are the only one? Talk about dismissive.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

75. You are the only one being dismissive.

Please stop it and stop spreading dangerous misinformation.

You are highly misinformed on this matter.

[inthewind21]

76. Yet

Ironically, you have dismissed the info handed to you. Hmmm, wonder why that is.

[beaglelover]

77. The pandemic IS over. I've been leading a maskless life now for about a year.

We have vaccines and very effective treatments. I'm done living in fear. It's not healthy mentally. If you want to wear a mask, go for it. And if someone ridicules you, just tell them to fuck off. It's your life and you have to live it your way. I'm living mine my way.

[Raine]

80. Agree. nt