(Washington Insider Magazine)- In an interview that was televised on Sunday, Joe Biden declared that “the pandemic is over,” but he also acknowledged that a problem with Covid still persisted as the US continues to struggle with coronavirus infections, which claim the lives of hundreds of Americans every day.
To CBS’s 60 Minutes, the president said that the problem with Covid still persisted. They were still dong a lot of work on it. But the pandemic was over. People weren’t wearing masks. Everyone seemed to be in generally good health. Therefore, he believed it was changing.
Following news that weekly deaths were at their lowest level since March of 2020, the World Health Organization said last week that the end of the pandemic was “in sight.”
It did, however, issue a warning that coronavirus remained an “acute global emergency” and pointed out that over 1 million people passed away from Covid-19 in the first eight months of 2022.
Since early in Biden’s term, when over 3,000 Americans were dying every day, the pandemic’s toll in the US has dramatically decreased thanks to improved care, medications, and vaccinations that are now more readily accessible.
But the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says Covid still claims the lives of close to 400 individuals a day in the US.
After two episodes of COVID, beginning in July, Biden spent more than two weeks in isolation in the White House. In August, Jill, his wife, became ill with the virus. The moderate cases, according to Biden, are evidence of the improvements in healthcare made under his administration.
In order to be ready for a potential autumn case surge, Biden has asked Congress for an additional $22.4 billion in funding.
Biden, who typically refrains from commenting on the criminal investigations being conducted by the Department of Justice into his predecessor, told 60 Minutes that Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence was “totally irresponsible”.
What information would compromise sources and methods, he said. By that he meant the names of individuals who help etc, and that was just totally irresponsible.
Biden claimed that he had not been given a classified briefing on the information contained in the papers that the FBI had obtained during a search of Trump’s Florida home.
Since he didn’t want to become involved in whether the justice department should pursue certain possible steps or not, he hadn’t asked for the specifics of those papers, Biden said. He agreed wouldn’t direct them or advise them on whether or not to pursue a case.
The law department has stated that it is looking into Trump’s removal of White House papers because it thinks he illegally possessed documents, including those involving clandestine human sources and intelligence gathering, which are some of the most closely held secrets in America.
The question of whether dangers to national security were posed by the leak of the information in those documents is also being looked into by Biden’s intelligence chief.
