Here we go again.
A new report from the Department of Health and Human Services says that policymakers should “encourage or mandate policies and protocols regarding masking and social distancing in public spaces.”
The report states that ending the mask mandates made it harder for people with “long COVID.”
The report also calls for funding for long COVID support groups and new health benefits for COVID victims.
Masking and social distancing should be encouraged or even mandated once more in public in order to protect people from COVID-19 and from the possibility of suffering from “Long COVID,” according to a new report from the Department of Health and Human Services.
The report, commissioned by HHS and produced by research agency Coforma, calls for a broad range of government policies to help people who continue to deal with the lingering effects of COVID. Those policies include an awareness campaign, funding for long COVID support groups, financial support for students and workers, and new health benefits for COVID victims.
Reinstating a mask mandate may be the most controversial recommendation in the report, which says ending that mandate in late 2021 and 2022 is making it harder for people with long COVID.
“The lifting of mask mandates and indifferent attitude toward masking and social distancing typical in many public and private places further isolates people with Long COVID,” the report said. As a result, policymakers should “encourage or mandate policies and protocols regarding masking and social distancing in public spaces,” it said.
This is at odds with what Biden said back in September when he declared that the pandemic was over.
Joe Biden declared the Covid pandemic is over in a sit-down interview with “60 Minutes” that aired on Sunday evening.
This is Joe Biden’s first interview with an American outlet in more than 7 months.
“The pandemic is over. We still have a problem with Covid. We’re still doing a lot of work on it. It’s – but the pandemic is over,” Biden said to Scott Pelley.
His administration extended the public health emergency through at least April of 2023.
The Washington Examiner reported:
The Biden administration is set to extend the COVID-19 public health emergency through at least next April.
The public health emergency, which was set to expire on Jan. 11, will remain in place through the first quarter of 2022 to allow the government more time to offload responsibility for COVID-19 vaccines, tests, antiviral treatment, and other COVID-19 pharmaceuticals to the private sector — all have been provided free by the government during the health emergency, a Biden administration official told Reuters.
Are mask mandates coming back?