COVID-19 is no longer an official emergency: Is that the right call?

The Brink: The public health emergency declaration meant easier access to COVID tests, vaccines, and treatments. What are the main impacts of it ending?

Who’s going to be most affected by this? Is there going to be an unequal impact?

Massachusetts is also ending mask requirements in healthcare settings and most hospitals have said they’ll follow suit.

Even if masking had stayed in hospitals, is this the right time for the public health emergency declaration to expire or should it have been renewed, or perhaps replaced by something else?

The federal government ended the COVID national emergency last month, the WHO has said COVID is no longer a global emergency. Those moves feel really symbolic. I can imagine a lot of people saying this means the pandemic is over.

Last year, we spoke with you about pandemic versus endemic. Where are we on that journey?

Did we, as a nation, as a planet, learn the lessons from COVID in terms of living with a pandemic and preparing for future ones? It sounds like perhaps we didn’t.

With all these declarations ending, are you sticking with the precautions that you’ve been taking for the past couple of years—wearing masks, avoiding restaurants?

What else would you want people to know about the emergency ending or where we’re at in the pandemic?

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