Biden’s recent declaration that the Covid-19 pandemic was over was premature, according to several infectious disease experts, but there was not a consensus among them about whether the remarks will cause a significant change in Americans’ attitude towards the virus and lead to worse public health outcomes.
That’s partly because Biden was simply catching up to most of the US population, who see how much lower the case and death counts are than earlier in the pandemic, and as such, have stopped wearing masks in public and now gather regularly indoors, the experts said.
Still, an average of more than 400 people die every day due to Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
As such, members of the public, including the US president, should continue to treat the virus as a significant threat, the experts say.
“He is reflecting the fact that we’re all acting as if it’s something of the past, but many of us, especially us older folks, know friends who are getting Covid, some of whom are suffering from it and getting really bad cases,” said David Rosner, who studies public health and social history at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. “It’s certainly better than it was a year ago and two years ago, but it’s not over.”
But Biden offered that assessment during a CBS 60 Minutes episode that aired last Sunday.
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