The COVID-19 pandemic is over for everyone — everyone but Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The pandemic lives on for the New York democratic socialist — at least according to an automated phone message that reportedly plays when people call her congressional office in Washington, D.C.
“Thank you for calling the office of Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Federal, state and local officials have advised that social distancing is critical to preventing the spread of COVID-19,” the recorded greeting from a male staffer says, according to the New York Post.
“As such, staff in the congresswoman’s DC and district offices will shortly begin telecommuting. Meetings and other business will be conducted by phone or video. Thank you for your understanding.”
Huh? Who’s still doing any of that? Way back in August 2022, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) got rid of its social distance requirement, which called for people to stay six feet from others. And last September, President Joe Biden declared, “The pandemic is over.”
In a bit of hilarity, Biden’s staff and Dr. Anthony Fauci, who headed up the White House COVID response team, walked back the president’s declaration. But Biden did sign a bill passed by Congress that officially ended the COVID-19 emergency on May 11.
One fellow lawmaker mocked AOC for being so out of tune. “Maybe her office just needs to update its voicemail but the pandemic is over and all federal employees need to return to the office. They don’t get paid to sit home,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) told the Post. “My office never closed to begin with.”
You still see the odd straggler wearing a mask (I saw one just yesterday alone in a car), but for the wide majority of Americans, we were done with the pandemic last year. SARS CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, keeps mutating and moving around, but we’ve all moved on.
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When the federal government launched a vaccine booster campaign last September, advising people over 50 and those with certain medical conditions to take the jab, Americans went “nah.”
“Around two-thirds of adults in the United States do not plan to get updated COVID-19 booster shots soon, according to a survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), a health policy nonprofit organization,” Reuters reported at the time.
But Democrats believed the establishment media in America, which spent two years terrifying people with breathless reports that we were all about to die. Once they committed, they just didn’t want to let the pandemic go.
That was made clear in a Gallup poll last November. “Americans in all party groups have become more likely to say the pandemic is over since July, including increases of 12 points among Republicans, 14 points among Democrats and 10 points among independents,” Gallup found.
“However, Republicans are the only party with a majority saying the pandemic is over. Republicans are more than three times as likely as Democrats to say this, at 73% vs. 21%, while 48% of independents agree. Despite the fact that Biden has said he believes the pandemic is over, a majority of his party’s faithful, 79%, do not concur.”
And some, like AOC, apparently still don’t concur.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.