“The Pandemic is Over.” But, is it?

President Biden declared the pandemic over on “60 Minutes” last week. But pandemics have a way of confounding predictions.

Joe Biden talks to Scott Pelley at the Detroit Auto Show.

It’s been more than two and a half years since the first COVID-19 lockdowns swept the world. Two and half years of lost parents and spouses, lovers and friends. Two and a half years of lost wages and opportunities, economic strife and frustration. Two and a half years of downs and ups, surges and ebbs. 

I understand the urge to declare the pandemic over. But pandemics have a way of frustrating our optimistic urges. And yet that didn’t stop President Biden from making that declaration on “60 Minutes” this week.

Dan Diamond @ddiamond

Biden on @60Minutes says Detroit auto show last week a sign: “the pandemic is over” BIDEN: We still have a problem with covid, we’re still doing a lot of work on it… but the pandemic is over. If you notice, no one’s wearing masks, everyone seems to be in pretty good shape.

Contrast that with what World Health Organization Secretary General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had to say earlier in the week:

“A marathon runner does not stop when the finish line comes into view. She runs harder, with all the energy she has left. So must we. We can see the finish line. We’re in a winning position. But now is the worst time to stop running”

The fundamental difference here is what these messages require of us. Where Biden’s message signals that the end is here — that we have nothing more to do — Ghebreyesus signals that what we do now may dictate how fast we finish. So what does it mean to run through the finish line?