The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently renewed the national COVID-19 public health emergency—the ninth and perhaps most controversial renewal since its initial declaration nearly two and a half years ago.
Much of the debate has revolved around whether the word ‘emergency’ still applies to COVID-19. A person’s perspective or risk status, or varying community transmission levels, may lead to different individual judgments. But at a societal level, we need a broader and more objective focus on what a public health emergency allows us to do, the consequences of lifting it prematurely and how to plan for its eventual end. Getting caught up in semantics only pushes us further away from both the end of the pandemic and the policies necessary to make America a fairer and healthier nation long after it recedes.
The above is an excerpt of a piece originally published in The Hill.
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