The White House argued that doing so would “create wide-ranging chaos and uncertainty” throughout the health-care system and disrupt the orderly wind-down the administration had envisioned.
Since Biden entered office, his administration has pledged to give governors 60 days’ notice before terminating the public health emergency, as health groups fretted about an abrupt termination. An end to the public health emergency appeared likely to come this spring — unless there was a major change in the pandemic’s trajectory — but the notice Monday afternoon in response to two Republican bills came unexpectedly.
The looming expiration of the orders signifies a new phase of the pandemic response, as U.S. officials get rid of flexibilities used during the earliest and darkest days of the coronavirus.
