The Biden administration quietly admitted its plan to end the COVID-19 emergency declarations Monday, three years after the start of the pandemic.

In a statement of policy from the White House Office of Management and Budget, 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 comes in response to two bills in Congress that would force the end of these declarations.

“The COVID-19 national emergency and public health emergency (PHE) were declared by the Trump Administration in 2020,” OMB said in its statement. “They are currently set to expire on March 1 and April 11, respectively. At present, the Administration’s plan is to extend the emergency declarations to May 11, and then end both emergencies on that date. This wind-down would align with the Administration’s previous commitments to give at least 60 days’ notice prior to termination of the PHE.”

“To be clear, continuation of these emergency declarations until May 11 does not impose any restriction at all on individual conduct with regard to COVID-19.,” OMB continued. “They do not impose mask mandates or vaccine mandates. They do not restrict school or business operations. They do not require the use of any medicines or tests in response to cases of COVID-19.”

But the policy was announced in a statement intended to criticize two bills in the House of Representatives that would end the emergency declarations by force. The first, H.R. 382, a.k.a. the ‘‘Pandemic is Over Act,” was introduced by Kentucky Republican Rep. Brett Guthrie; it would terminate the public health emergency. The second, House Joint Resolution 7, was authored by Arizona Republican Rep. Paul Gosar; it would terminate the national emergency.

In its statement, the White House railed against the two bills. First, the White House claimed that terminating the Declaration would create chaos in the health care system. Ending the public health emergency would jeopardize Medicaid funding given to states by abruptly ending provisions passed by Congress, the OMB memo argued.

Furthermore, the OMB argued that ending the emergency would create chaos in hospitals and nursing homes by doing away with the flexibilities from the pandemic, disrupting care, delaying payments, and costing facilities money. Ending the emergency would also jeopardize telehealth services, the office claimed.

Second, the end of the public health emergency will end Title 42. The administration is still trying to end the policy that allows border agents to turn migrants away on an expedited basis, but it was stopped by the Supreme Court. “[I]f H.R. 382
becomes law and the Title 42 restrictions end precipitously, Congress will effectively be requiring the Administration to allow thousands of migrants per day into the country immediately without the necessary policies in place,” the policy memo argued.

“The Administration strongly opposes enactment of H.R. 382 and H.J. Res. 7, which would be a grave disservice to the American people,” the OMB concluded.

The Biden administration has struggled to put forth a consistent message since President Joe Biden declared that “the pandemic is over” in a 60 Minutes interview in September. Last week, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre repeated that the pandemic is not yet over. “COVID isn’t over. We’ve been very clear about that,” Jean-Pierre said at a briefing Tuesday. “Hundreds of Americans are dying every day and cases are increasing right now today. That’s why we take common sense measures like COVID testing ahead of large indoor gatherings at the White House.”

Italy is the latest European country whose professional health body has warned against the use of puberty blocking drugs in children.

The Italian Psychoanalytic Society (SPI) penned a letter this month to the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, expressing “great concern” over the “ongoing experimentation” of drugs meant to stop puberty in children and urging “rigorous scientific discussion.” 

“The diagnosis of gender dysphoria at prepubertal age is based on the statements of the individuals concerned and cannot be subject to careful evaluation while the development of sexual identity is still in progress,” the letter says.

The letter, written by president Sarantis Thanopulos and published on the society’s website, outlined “contraindications” to the puberty-blocking drugs that should be “seriously considered.”

“Only a minority of children who state that they do not identify with their gender confirm this position in adolescence, after puberty,” the letter continued. A body of research indicates that roughly 60–90% of children who identify as transgender, but do not socially or medically transition, will no longer identify as transgender in adulthood.

“It is important to initiate a rigorous scientific discussion on the issue of children with gender problems, to which the Italian Psychoanalytic Society will gladly contribute,” the letter concluded.

Meloni, Italy’s first female prime minister who took office in October 2022, indicated skepticism of radical gender theory during a speech she gave in Spain last June, in which she said, “Yes to the natural family, no to the LGBT lobby, yes to sexual identity, no to gender ideology …”

There is a growing international consensus that minors experiencing gender dysphoria should be treated with psychotherapy first, not medical interventions. Health authorities in Sweden, Finland, and the U.K. have unanimously concluded after systematic reviews of evidence for puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones that the risks and uncertainties outweigh any purported benefits.

Far from “completely safe and reversible” and “a pause button on puberty,” as proponents of “gender-affirming care” claim, the children who begin taking puberty blockers during the first signs of puberty and go on to take cross-sex hormones, which constitute the vast majority, will become sterilized and may never be able to achieve orgasm.

The New York Times investigated the deleterious effects that puberty blockers have on bone health, and published an article after reviewing the scientific literature and interviewing over 50 doctors and academic experts around the world. 

In the United States, doctors have prescribed puberty blockers off-label as a “treatment” for gender dysphoria in adolescents on an experimental basis. There are no long-term studies to support its use during this critical window of brain and body development, and they are not FDA-approved for their off-label use.