Views from the nation’s press

The Virginian-pilot on the life-saving pandemic programs set to end as COVID emergency order expires:

After three years and more than 1 million American deaths, the public health emergency related to COVID-19 formally came to an end on Thursday. It came a few days after the World Health Organization announced an end to the “emergency” phase of the three-year COVID-19 pandemic.

This is undoubtedly an important milestone, reflecting the country’s progress in fighting the disease, the population’s vaccination numbers and the comparatively low number of hospitalization and deaths. But the nation shouldn’t lose sight of those still at greater risk from a coronavirus infection, who face a treacherous path in the absence of the programs and protections established under those expiring emergency powers.

In early 2020, when the first wave of coronavirus crashed against American shores, public health officials scrambled to pull together the tools to effectively combat the disease. The declaration of both a national emergency and a public health emergency were instrumental in those efforts, granting Washington the power to act swiftly and forcefully to provide the necessary care and resources to fight an insidious enemy.

Those declarations enabled such achievements as the rapid development and deployment of COVID-19 vaccines and providing free coronavirus tests to households free of charge. Unquestionably, those programs and initiatives saved American lives.

Though different studies draw different conclusions, the scientific consensus is that the vaccines alone prevented millions from hospitalization and perhaps 3 million deaths — and they were available free of charge. They allowed society to reopen and for the economy to ramp up once again.