McConnell: Given current COVID science, time to ‘wind down’ state of emergency

McConnell made remarks on Senate floor

By ROB CRILLY, SENIOR U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 13:50 EST, 2 February 2022 | UPDATED: 13:50 EST, 2 February 2022

e-mail
16
shares
67

View comments
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell demanded an end to the COVID-19 state of emergency on Wednesday , saying it was time for Americans to get on with their lives after two years on a ‘hellish highway.’

President Donald Trump declared a national emergency in March 2020 as the virus spread. And President Joe Biden subsequently extended the declaration.

But McConnell said the impact of the disease was waning and that the virus was heading towards endemic status.

‘In February 2022, we know we are currently facing an Omicron variant that seems both significantly more contagious than its predecessors, but also significantly less severe,’ he said.

‘Even in hard hit states like my own, where hospitalizations remain too high, the curve of cases and hospitalizations appears to be starting to bend back down.’

He added that vaccinations continue to make the difference between life and death.

‘But from a society-wide perspective after two years on a hellish highway it appears our country is finally arriving at the off ramp,’ he said.

‘The virus appears to be heading endemic.

‘Seventy percent of Americans agree with the statement: “It’s time we accept that COVID is here to stay and we just need to get on with our lives.”

‘It’s time for the state of emergency to wind down.’

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said it was time for the state of emergency over COVID-19 to end. The Trump administration declared a public health emergency two years ago
+4
View gallery
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said it was time for the state of emergency over COVID-19 to end. The Trump administration declared a public health emergency two years ago

Latest data suggest the Omicron wave of COVID-19 infections is ebbing across the country
+4
View gallery
Latest data suggest the Omicron wave of COVID-19 infections is ebbing across the country

His comments appeared to be an effort to head off any more emergency funding demands, and they came as a growing number of health experts have recommended loosening rules.

The World Health Organization this week said some countries can now consider carefully relaxing restrictions so long as they have high immunity rates, strong health care systems and that epidemiological trends are heading in the right direction.

White House Press Secretary on Wednesday said the president’s priority remained fighting the virus.

‘I will say that the president’s view is that we’re not going to live like this forever. We don’t want to live like this forever,’ she said.

‘And our objective and our goal is on ending this pandemic as we know it today.’

England, France, Ireland, the Netherlands and several Nordic countries have taken steps to lift or ease rules.

American public opinion is in line.

The statistic quoted by McConnell came from the Monmouth University Polling Institute.

Last month it found that seven in ten Americans agree with the idea that ‘it’s time we accept that COVID is here to stay and we just need to get on with our lives’ – including 78 percent of those who say they have had COVID and 65 percent of those who say they have not been infected.

‘Americans’ worries about COVID haven’t gone away,’ said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute.

‘It seems more to be a realization that we are not going to get this virus under control in a way that we thought was possible just last year.’

A recent Monmouth University poll found that a whopping 70 percent of Americans believe ‘It’s time we accept that COVID is here to stay and we just need to get on with our lives’
+4
View gallery
A recent Monmouth University poll found that a whopping 70 percent of Americans believe ‘It’s time we accept that COVID is here to stay and we just need to get on with our lives’

RELATED ARTICLES
Previous
1
Next

Lockdowns, school closures and limiting gatherings only…

AOC says Facebook and other US firms have ‘sabotaged’ the…

Pelosi wants just 50 House members to attend Biden’s State…

Number two Democrat in the House Steny Hoyer, 82, tests…
SHARE THIS ARTICLE
Share
16 shares
But political differences remain. The same poll found that 89 percent of Republicans, 71 percent of independents but only 47 percent of Democrats thought it was time to move on.

McConnell highlighted the point.

‘But disturbingly whether or not we should trust the silence and reclaim normalcy is somehow becoming a partisan question,’ he said.

‘As a New York Times writer observed this week, millions of Democrats have decided that organizing their lives around COVID is core to their identity as progressives, even as pandemic isolation and disruption are fueling mental health problems, drug overdoses, violent crime, rising blood pressure and growing educational inequality.’

Yet still lives were being disrupted by restrictions, he continued.

‘In communities across the country, bureaucrats are still forcing young children to wear masks to participate in society, when neither kids nor vaccinated adults are remotely likely to get gravely ill,’ he said.

‘What exactly are we doing here? Where are the goalposts? What is their end game?’

McConnell used his speech to pour cold water on any future funding demands.

‘Now we hear Democrats may request yet another huge chunk of emergency spending. But experts say as much as $800 billion or $900 billion of the money that we’ve already set aside as not even been spent yet,’ he said

‘What about a full accounting of the $6 trillion that’s already been approved?’