SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – President Joe Biden has made multiple headlines due to his interview on "60 Minutes" Sunday night where, among other things, he declared that the coronavirus pandemic "is over."
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This comes as another round of boosters are being distributed and flu season approaches, as well as Biden and Democrats actively seeking $22 billion in COVID-19 emergency relief funding.
"It's an incorrect statement, medically," KCBS Political Analyst Marc Sandalow told Melissa Culross on Monday.
"There were, on average over the last week, 60,000 cases per day in the United States," said Sandalow. While this is much lower than what it once was, it by no means the problem is over.
There were still also on average about 460 deaths per day in the United States from COVID-19 in the last week or so. This is an improvement as well, deaths used to be in the upper thousands, but it still doesn’t negate the fact that the virus is still a presence in people’s lives.
Biden, in his proclamation, cited the fact that almost no one wears masks anymore, and that "everyone seems to be in pretty good shape."
"Well, obviously, not everyone is in pretty good shape," said Sandalow. And a huge factor in the relaxing of masking can be attributed to people like Biden stating the pandemic is over.
"That's not a sign it's over, it's a sign that people aren't taking it seriously," he said.
The daily death rate for COVID-19 is still three to five times higher than that of the flu and society doesn’t come screeching to a halt because of the flu.
"I think what Biden is trying to say is that the time we have to completely halt in our tracks because of this pandemic is over," he said.
But the fact that billions in funding are still being sought this month in Congress to address the pandemic is a huge indication that the pandemic is not over.
It's unlikely Biden's statement will change any votes on the issue, but it may provide Republicans who oppose the funding initiative the excuse not to vote for it.
And regardless of whether the United States moves past the pandemic, that doesn't mean the issue has reached an end for the rest of the world.
"It's not going to be over until the rest of the world gets it over with," said Sandalow. "Until then, as long as people travel, there will be variants."
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