Monday’s news leak that the Biden Administration will extend the Covid-19 public-health emergency—which had been scheduled to end on Friday—for another 90 days was no surprise for a White House that seems to want a perpetual emergency.
The Biden Administration claims the declaration provides critical regulatory flexibility. But emergency-use authorizations for vaccines and treatments are governed by a separate statute. The Health and Human Services Department could also make permanent other regulation flexibility, such as Medicare coverage for telehealth services.
Why keep extending the emergency? One reason is that in March 2020 Congress barred states from kicking ineligible people off Medicaid rolls during the emergency in return for more federal funding. Medicaid enrollment has ballooned to 95 million—30% of Americans are now enrolled—from 71 million in December 2019. The emergency expands Medicaid in GOP states that opted out of the ObamaCare, expansion. It is also a boon for insurers in states that pay per Medicaid participant. Hospitals and physician groups support extending the emergency because they worry that state Medicaid payments will decline if the federal fillip goes away.
Another reason: Congress in March 2020 suspended food-stamp work requirements during the emergency and sweetened benefits in states that maintained their own declarations. As of April, 41.2 million Americans were receiving food stamps—an average of $228 monthly per person—which is about 4.4 million more than before the pandemic.
Yet if the White House believes Covid continues to be an emergency, why hasn’t the Food and Drug Administration authorized the Novavax vaccine? The World Health Organization green-lighted it in December. The FDA’s advisory board nearly unanimously endorsed the vaccine over a month ago, in part because its traditional technology might encourage vaccination among the hesitant.
It isn’t yet clear if BA.5 differs from other versions of Covid-19 when it comes to the symptoms or severity of illness it causes, virus experts say, and there are some mixed signals from other countries it hit earlier. Common symptoms of Covid-19 include fever, cough, headache and body aches, among others. BA.5 became dominant in South Africa by mid-April while deaths there remained low, noted Ashish Jha, the White House’s Covid-19 response coordinator, in recent tweets about the subvariant. However, Portugal’s recent BA.5 wave did send deaths higher, Dr. Jha said.
BA.5 has taken over in the U.S. while a familiar, Omicron-era pattern continues: lots of cases, but a muted impact when it comes to severe illness and deaths. Epidemiologists say built-up immunity in the population is helping to limit the acute damage from the continued case surge.
Why is BA.5 so easy to catch?
BA.5 is believed to spread very easily, both through inherent transmissibility, but also because of its immune-escape capabilities. Changes to the spike protein, which the virus uses to gain entry into cells, have souped up its ability to get around immune defenses.
Already had Covid-19. Can I get reinfected with the BA.5 variant?
Yes. Data show many people have endured repeat Covid-19 infections, and BA.5 is believed to be adept at reinfecting. People who had the BA.1 version of Omicron this winter have little protection against infection from this latest version, Dr. Jha said. These reinfections are another opportunity for people to develop complications like long-running and sometimes debilitating symptoms.
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