The Biden administration plans to end the national health emergency on May 11, 2023. A message to Congress shared how House Republicans are considering this week to complete those emergency declarations immediately. The Biden administration wants to wait until May because Republicans worry that an abrupt ending to the state of emergency would create “wide-ranging chaos and uncertainty throughout the health care system,” the White House said in a statement.
According to the CDC, doubts have risen as covid cases have been fluctuating, but health experts believe the country is on its way to removing the state of emergency and treating the virus as a long-term threat. “All the signs around them are that we’re going to be battling episodic surges,” said Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University public health professor who has informally advised the White House. “It’s going to be déjà vu all over again,” Gostin told POLITICO in an interview.
Policy leaders want to ensure that vulnerable populations are safe before moving toward the end of the public emergency. Lawmakers shared with Bloomberg Law that it’s time for the administration to call it quits on the public health designation that has granted the government regulatory flexibility in an unprecedented crisis.
The HHS has renewed the covid emergency for 90-day periods since early 2020.
