Closing Down Operation COVID
Senate votes to end COVID-19 national emergency
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/3924782-senate-votes-to-end-covid-19-national-emergency/amp/
The administration is planning to wind down the COVID national emergency and public health emergency on May 11. If this bill comes to his desk, however, he will sign it, and the administration will continue working with agencies to wind down the national emergency with as much notice as possible to Americans who could potentially be impacted,” a White House official said.
The national emergency is different from the public health emergency, though the White House will end both on May 11. Under federal law, Congress has the power to ask for periodic votes to terminate a national emergency.
So basically the end is near. Two months and 3 years after the WHO pandemic Declaration on March 11, which came 2 months after China uploaded the Sars-Cov-2 sequences on Jan 11, which was 1 month after the creation of DOMANE on December 11 , the Emergency will end May 11, 2023
Exactly 1154 days after the National Emergency was first declared.
[ 11, 5+4 =9. Special numbers]
So what does the end of the COVID emergency mean?
I discussed this a couple of months ago, and assume it still holds true
So then I hear FDA saying the EUA’s would still continue after May 11. I thought that was not going to be possible, all the experts told me so and frankly, that’s what makes sense
But then I see Meryl Nass saying they snuck something in
FDA’s emergency use authorizations will not end with the state of emergency, thanks in part to some nifty language quietly slid into the multi-trillion-dollar spending package passed in December.
Unfortunately she provides no links to this and I cant verify it, so who knows?
Then I found this,
https://www.fda.gov/media/97321/download
and this
A separate emergency declaration pursuant to Section 564 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic (FD&C) Act was issued by the Secretary of HHS in February 2020. Based on this determination, on March 27, 2020, the Secretary declared that circumstances existed to justify emergency use authorization (EUA) of medical countermeasures for COVID-19. An EUA is a mechanism to facilitate availability and use of medical countermeasures that are determined to be safe and effective but have not yet been formally approved. An emergency declaration issued pursuant to Section 564 of the FD&C Act remains in effect until terminated by the HHS Secretary. The timing to conclude the EUA is to be determined; it will not conclude on May 11, 2023, with the other declarations.
A declaration under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act (pursuant to Section 319F-3 of the Public Health Service Act) was issued by the Secretary of HHS in March 2020. This declaration provides liability immunity for activities related to COVID-19 medical countermeasures. Since then, 10 amendments to the declaration have been issued to extend liability protections related to COVID-19 countermeasures. For a PREP Act emergency determination, the Secretary must specify an end date; in this case, it has been set as October 1, 2024, in most cases (although there are some exceptions).
So they seem to have had the authority to extend it all along
So what exactly does ending the Emergency mean?
One impliction is that Federal Workers may be forced back into poorly ventilated workspaces:
Roughly half of federal employees are still working from home, which has drawn the ire of politicians ranging from Democratic Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY). That, too, was initiated at the outset of the pandemic and has largely remained in place even as private companies bring workers back in person.
A second implication is that Biden’s policy of mass infection will continue to move from strength to strength, as things Covid become more expensive and people lose Medicaid coverage:
The public-health-emergency designation allows for certain Covid-19 measures, such as the suspension of eligibility renewals for people on Medicaid and the prescription of controlled substances via telehealth. States are bracing for an expansive effort to redetermine individuals’
Medicaid eligibility once the designation is lifted. Public-health leaders say millions of beneficiaries could lose coverage.
Finally — and this the serious part, if you are at all concerned you should go read this — Kaiser Health News put together an enormous, multi-tabled brief that oddly, no other source is quoting: “What Happens When COVID-19 Emergency Declarations End? Implications for Coverage, Costs, and Access.” Here is the list of topics covered:
This brief provides an overview of the major health-related COVID-19 federal emergency declarations that have been made, and summarizes the flexibilities triggered by each in the following areas:
Coverage, costs, and payment for COVID-19 testing, treatments, and vaccines
Medicaid coverage and federal match rates
Telehealth
Other Medicaid and CHIP flexibilities
Other Medicare payment and coverage flexibilities
Other private insurance coverage flexibilities
This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of all federal policy and regulatory provisions made in response to COVID-19 emergency declarations. For example, we do not cover the entire range of federal and state emergency authorities exercised under Medicaid Disaster Relief State Plan Amendments (SPAs), other Medicaid and CHIP SPAs, and other state-reported administrative actions; Section 1115 waivers; Section 1135 waivers; and 1915 (c) waiver Appendix K strategies. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services maintains a more complete list of coronavirus waivers and flexibilities that have been exercised since early 2020; some state actions to respond to the emergency may have expiration dates that are not tied to the end of the federal emergency declarations. This brief also does not include all congressional actions that have been made affecting access to COVID-19 vaccines, tests, and treatment that are not connected to emergency declarations, such as coverage of COVID-19 vaccines under Medicare and private insurance (see Commercialization of COVID-19 Vaccines, Treatments, and Tests: Implications for Access and Coverage for more discussion of these issues).
Someone a lot brighter than me is going to have to figure it out but basically I think it means COVID is not going to be as profitable for the profiteers and no more free ride for consumers, COVID is going to be more expensive to test, treat and vaccinate against.
I am also not sure if the government will continue paying funeral costs for COVID deaths
Then, in March 2021, Congress extended this financial incentive, allowing FEMA to pull from $50 billion in general disaster relief funding through September 30, 2025, as part of the American Rescue Plan Act. So long as there is a National Emergency, families are empowered to seek financial reimbursement for the loss of their loved ones where COVID is present.
One reason is the added incentive for hospitals to screen nearly every hospitalized patient for COVID, no matter what the underlying diagnosis, whether it is a broken tibia or a gallstone, even for patients with no COVID-like symptoms. Sec. 3710 of the CARES Act stipulates when a Medicare patient tests positive for COVID-19, the facility receives a 20 percent add-on reimbursement as long as there is a National Emergency.
When a patient dies, the incentive to diagnose COVID grows stronger. Suppose the doctor or medical examiner fills out the death certificate and notes that COVID could plausibly have contributed to the patient's death. In that case, the deceased patient's family stands to gain up to $10,000 for funeral expenses from FEMA. Often all that is needed is for the patient's physician to note a positive COVID test on the death certificate, even if COVID had little to do with the patient's death.
Through January 1, more than 445,000 Americans received COVID funeral benefits, totaling almost $2.9 billion.
https://www.newsweek.com/downsides-financial-incentives-diagnose-covid-opinion-1776181