White House COVID Response Team Will Disband In May: Report

The White House will reportedly disband its COVID response team when the public health emergency ends in May, according to a report.

The message was very covered by The Washington Post on Wednesday night. According to the state, the verdict was influenced by the steadily declining number of COVID deaths and the lack of an increase in cases during the winter. The public health emergency may start on May 11 as previously stated by the White House.

“As a result of this administration’s historic response to Covid-19, we as a nation are in a safer, better place than we were three years ago,” a senior administration official told The Washington Post. “Covid no longer disrupts our lives because of investments and our efforts to mitigate its worst impacts. Covid is not over, fighting it remains an administration priority, and transitioning out of the emergency phase is the natural evolution of the covid response.”

Another official who had previously worked on the company said,” We took these projects with the intention of becoming redundant.”

Dr. Ashish Jha, the regional representative, is renowned among the leaders scheduled to leave once the party disbands. Jha is anticipated to completely keep government work, according to the Post. Since joining the COVID party in April, he has been on left from his position as professor of the Brown University School of Public Health. Others said he is uninterested, but some officials have suggested that the Biden administration could give him a new position, such as head of the previously established pandemic response office or just stay on as COVID planner.

A number of key officials on the team have previously departed. Jha’s predecessor as COVID response coordinator, Jeff Zients, resigned from the post in March 2022. Mary Wall, who served as chief of staff, and communications staffer Subhan Cheema, have both departed.

Other top health officials who worked alongside the team have also left. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the president’s chief medical adviser and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, retired in December. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, retired in December 2021. Vaccine distribution adviser David Kessler also left his post in January, the Post reported.

News of the COVID response team disbanding comes after the White House announced an end to the national and public health emergencies. In a statement of policy from the White House Office of Management and Budget on January 30, the White House admitted that it would file one last extension of the national and public health emergency declarations on April 11, then would end both one month later, on May 11. The memo came in response to two bills in Congress that would force the end of these declarations.

The Trump Administration” declared the COVID-19 national emergency and public health emergency ( PHE ) in 2020 ,” according to an OMB statement. They are scheduled to go on March 1 and April 11 of this year, respectively. The Administration’s current plan is to increase the emergency declarations until May 11 before putting an end to both emergencies. This wind-down may be consistent with the Administration’s earlier pledges to provide at least 60 days’ notice before the PHE is terminated.