The Danger of Treating Everything as an Emergency
COVID-19, one of the most formidable viral foes that the world has faced in a century, has caused more than 4.5 million deaths. The United States and nearly every other country besides were correct to declare it a public-health emergency. But now federal, state, and local officials are grappling with when to end the temporary emergencies declared in early 2020, in many cases with the expectation that they’d last just weeks. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which has been renewing its emergency order every 90 days, told governors earlier this year that its crisis footing would likely continue for at least the entirety of 2021.
How will we know when this crisis is over? There is no consensus. In fact, elected officials, health experts, and issue advocates disagree all the time about what even constitutes a public-health emergency or crisis. Is “COVID-19. Is pornography? Sixteen state legislatures . Is ? Abortion? to abortion? The list hardly ends there. Ongoing campaigns treat , , , , , , , and more as public-health emergencies.
