During a Sunday interview on CBS's "60 Minutes", Joe Biden declared that the Covid pandemic "is over."
In doing so, analysts say, Biden also voided the justification for states to conduct massive vote-by-mail campaigns for the 2022 midterm elections and for any government entity to continue vaccine mandates.
Human Events senior editor Jack Posobiec wrote in a Telegram post that Biden "has declared the pandemic over. Every military member, federal employee, or anyone else affected by the vaccine mandates must file cease and desists immediately citing this statement…. If the pandemic is over we can end universal mail-in voting immediately."
Some blue states have already taken pre-emptive action to ensure mass vote-by-mail continues in 2022 even though the threat of contracting Covid at a polling place, according to Biden's declaration, is essentially over.
In January of this year, New York Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation to allow voting by absentee ballot due to the Covid-19 pandemic through 2022.
Related: Delaware can’t use mail-in ballots in November election, judge rules, September 15, 2022
Biden said in the "60 Minutes" interview: "The pandemic is over. We still have a problem with Covid. We're still doing a lot of work on it. But the pandemic is over. If you notice, no one's wearing masks. Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape, and so I think it's changing, and I think [the Detroit auto show resuming after three years] is a perfect example of it."
Zero Hedge noted that Biden is "about a year and a half too late to the game. ... Apparently, in the ever teetering mind of Joe Biden the prevalence of masks was a measure of the prevalence of Covid. Of course, this all depends on where in the U.S. or the world you have been living. In red states, masks have been gone for around two years with the majority of people not wearing them. And despite the predictions (and fantasies) of many on the political left, conservatives were not dropping dead in the streets; far from it."
Immediately after Biden’s remarks, Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie said Team Biden should now relinquish all the emergency powers it has grabbed by hyping the threat of the virus.
“If ‘the pandemic is over’ as Biden says, then all of the President’s emergency powers predicated on a pandemic, all Covid vax mandates, the emergency powers of every governor, Emergency Use Authorizations, and the PREP act should all be voided tomorrow,” said Massie.
Law professor Jonathan Turley wrote that Biden's sudden announcement declaring the pandemic “is over” may have taken some people by surprise, including administration lawyers still using the pandemic as a basis for policies and programs.
Zero Hedge concluded: "What we must never forget, however, is how close we came to full-on medical authoritarianism under the supervision of the Biden Administration and men like Anthony Fauci. Numerous agenda driven institutions also pushed hard for the erasure of our freedoms, declaring that we would 'never go back to normal again' and that personal liberties had to be sacrificed under the new pandemic construct.
"If Biden's vaccine passport executive orders had been enforced instead of blocked, rest assured the U.S. would be like China is today – still dragging out the lockdowns and pretending Covid is an ongoing threat. Anyone refusing to vaccinate would have been denied employment and participation in the general economy, essentially starved into compliance or compelled to join black market systems and become criminals. Millions of citizens stood against these orders and won the day, but now we have to reverse course and ensure such an attempt to dismantle our rights never happens again."
Meanwhile, the U.S. Marine Corps has abandoned punishments for most service members who are seeking exemptions from the Pentagon's vaccine mandate.
Last year, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin issued an order that mandated Covid vaccinations for all members of the U.S. armed forces.
According to a Sept. 14 notice, the "Marine Corps will not enforce any order to accept COVID-19 vaccination, administratively separate, or retaliate against Marines in the class for asserting statutory rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act."
Additionally, the notice also referenced a temporary order blocking the Marine Corps from taking action against individuals seeking a religious exemption saying, "Involuntary administrative separation processing of class members for refusing COVID-19 vaccination is suspended." The memo also instructed commanders to "pause all administrative actions related to the involuntary separation of a class member, regardless of the current status of the separation process."
The memo also stated that “no orders will be given to receive the vaccine, no counselings will be issued for refusing the vaccine, no administrative separation boards will be conducted,” adding that no discharges will be issued.
Vaccination status can no longer be "considered or referenced" in fitness reports or other service member evaluations. Previously the Marine Corps required commanders to delay promotions of "any officer and delay/restrict the promotion of any enlisted member refusing the vaccine."
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