Pedestrians walk past a COVID-19 test in Times Square in New York City, USA. Released in the U. S. on May 17, 2022. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)
After the public fitness emergency ends, COVID vaccine materials, tests and remedies may decrease, leading to higher prices for Americans due to reduced insurance coverage, and people’s medical expenses may also increase, Professor Zhang Zuofeng said.
LOS ANGELES, May 10 (Xinhua) — The U. S. statement has led to the decline in the U. S. UU. de a COVID-19 public fitness emergency (PHE) will expire on Thursday. , and increasing the burden on deficient and minority populations, a leading epidemiologist told Xinhua on Wednesday.
The PHE announced through the U. S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. U. S. Homeland Security Agency (HHS) Alex Azar in January 2020 put in place transitional measures and allocate resources to further engage the pandemic.
Since taking office in 2021, US President Joe Biden has prolonged the state of emergency.
After more than 3 years of social disruption, at least 6 million COVID-19-related hospitalizations, and 1. 1 million deaths, the declaration will officially end on May 11.
After the PHE ends, COVID vaccine materials, tests and remedies could decrease, leading to higher prices for Americans due to reduced insurance coverage, and people’s medical expenses could also increase, said Zhang Zuofeng, professor and chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, he told Xinhua in an interview.
U. S. Hospitals The U. S. government got more investments from the PHE, such as various types of budget at the beginning of the pandemic, as well as a 20% increase in Medicare bills to treat COVID-19 patients, Zhang explained.
“As hospital systems lose this investment after May 11, other people will see their medical and insurance prices rise,” he said.
PHE helped distribute the budget and allowed millions of Americans to get Medicaid benefits during the pandemic. It prohibited states from changing eligibility, bonus and benefit requirements. But all of that could be replaced after May 11.
Many other people may simply lose their health insurance, Zhang said, adding that deficient and minority populations would be hit the hardest.
Health administers COVID-19 vaccines to local citizens of Los Angeles, USA. USA, December 17, 2022. (Xinhua)
In addition, the end of PHE means less data and information about coronavirus infection ends, making it difficult to track new variants and transmissions, Zhang said.
Surveillance of COVID-19 awareness through the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)The U. S. response was the cornerstone of the U. S. response. In the U. S. , and PHE, HHS had the authority to require laboratory verification reports for COVID-19.
At the end of PHE, HHS will no longer have this explicit authority to require this information from laboratories.
“CDC will cancel surveillance for new infections, continue to monitor hospitalizations and deaths. This will damage the surveillance and reporting formula established over the past 3 years and seriously weaken the country’s ability to monitor COVID-19 and long-term outbreaks of other outbreaks,” Zhang said.
The CDC and other federal agencies will have even less data, making it harder for them to transmit and trend into new variants and subvariants, he added.
The end of PHE also means relaxing protective measures such as wearing masks, isolating patients, detecting and quarantining close contacts, among others, Zhang said.
The Biden administration will finish the COVID-19 vaccine for federal employees, federal contractors and foreign air travelers on May 11.
Experts remain concerned that lifting protective measures would allow the virus to generate more disruptions.
“Reducing COVID-19 precautions exposes teams vulnerable to COVID-19 to greater risks,” Zhang said.
“Another major influence on the end of PHE will be the lack of public attention on pandemic preparedness and responses, and the neglect of applicable research,” he said.
The new XBB. 1. 16 subvariant of Omicron has the currently dominant strain in the United States, raising concerns about its maximum transmissibility and new symptoms.
Zhang said the prevalence of XBB. 1. 16 continues to grow and is possibly the next dominant coronavirus strain in the country.