Members of the House GOP have called on President Joe Biden to end COVID restrictions and many states have rolled back or abolished their mandates entirely. On Sunday, Biden said that the ending of those mandates is "probably premature," and said lifting restrictions would become more realistic as more children get vaccinated against the virus.
The letter, signed by more than 20 House Republicans and addressed both to Biden and his HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, read "Today we call on your administration to do what so many states and other countries already have: accept that COVID-19 is endemic, recognize that current heavy-handed government interventions are doing more harm than good, and immediately begin the process by which we unwind the PHE [Public Health Emergency] so our country can get back to normal."
They demanded that Biden submit a plan of action for getting the country out of this state of emergency by March 15 at the latest. In so doing, they pointed out the mental health toll the COVID-inspired restrictions have taken on Americans, as well as the incredible learning loss for students who have been subjected to some of the harshest treatment of all.
"Although the PHE was certainly necessary at the outset of the pandemic, it was always meant to be temporary," the House GOP said in the letter, "Our country is now in a much different situation than we were when the PHE was originally enacted."
They wrote to unequivocally call for the lifting of "all vaccine mandates, which have not stopped the spread of COVID-19 but have alienated many Americans and have caused staff shortages at hospitals and other health care facilities; lift all mask mandates and the federal guidance that forces children to wear masks in schools and day care facilities (these are based on faulty data and are used in many Democratic-led jurisdictions to justify such mandates); and insist that schools fully open so children can learn in person. Americans, especially children, are in crisis. Instead of keeping us in a permanent state of emergency, it is time for this administration [to] put people first and stop clinging to powers you currently enjoy under the PHE."
In an interview that aired Sunday, the president said that getting children vaccinated was the way forward. "Every day that goes by, children are more protected,” Biden said to CBS' Lester Holt, "the more protection they have, probably you’re going to see less and less requirement to have the masks."
Children are notably not as susceptible to the virus, and parents in localities where children are still required to mask in school, including New York, California, Washington state, and Illinois, have been livid that their children are paying the price for adult fear and behaviors. While children mask, both inside and outside, while exercising, while eating, and while learning, adults carry on as they please.
Such was the case with the Super Bowl on Sunday night, where despite local requirements, people were not masked. A message in skywriting appeared over the SoFi Stadium, reading: "unmask our kids." Biden, instead, would like them to get vaccinated against an illness that is of little threat to them.
Holt asked Biden about the likelihood that many Super Bowl attendees would not wear face masks, despite there being a local mandate in place. Biden slammed those who wouldn't mask at the game, which included Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, and numerous celebrities from Jay-Z to Charlize Theron to Lebron James.
"I love how people talk about personal freedom," Biden said. "If your exercising personal freedom puts someone else in jeopardy, their health in jeopardy. I don’t consider that being very dealing with freedom."
"People should get the shots," he said, "We know the shots work. We know they work for the variants that we are dealing with now."
On January 14, Becerra renewed the determination of a national public health emergency. The CDC has also refused to update or change their masking guidance, despite many states dispensing with them altogether.
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