WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is calling on federal, state and local leaders to end the state of emergency related to the coronavirus.
Speaking from the Senate floor on Wednesday, McConnell said that, between the protection offered by vaccines and the less lethal symptoms of now-dominant omicron variant, the need for emergency action no longer exists.
“After two years on this hellish highway, it appears our country is finally arriving at the off-ramp,” McConnell said. “The virus appears to be heading endemic. Seventy percent of Americans agree with the statement, ‘It’s time we accept that COVID is here to stay and we just need to get on with our lives.’ It is time for the state of emergency to wind down.”
The senate minority leader also says the risks the virus poses now are far different than they were two years ago.
“In communities across the country, bureaucrats are still forcing young children to wear masks to participate in society, when neither kids nor vaccinated adults are remotely likely to get gravely ill,” McConnell said.
“What exactly are we doing here? Where are the goalposts? What is their end game? Consider if this variant were its own separate virus that we were just meeting for the first time, without the scar tissue from the prior two years. Nobody would accept anywhere near this much disruption to fight the virus that we are actually facing now.”
McConnell also says that if additional money is needed to continue fighting the virus, Congress should first repurpose the more than $800 million sent to states, cities, counties and schools that remains unused.
