The national public health emergency is ending on May 11, and when it expires, there won’t be a lot of obvious, immediate changes related to our health, according to epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina.
“I think the biggest change people are going to see is data reporting coming from the CDC, hospitalizations, for example," Jetelina said. "It won't be on a daily basis, maybe weekly, maybe monthly.”
That means it will be tough to know when another surge might be starting or how well vaccines are protecting against certain variants.
Jetelina explained while there are still tests, treatments like paxlovid, and vaccines in the national stockpile, those should remain easily accessible. Once the stockpile is depleted, though, all those things may become more costly to the consumer and more difficult to get.
In this episode, host Bonnie Petrie talks with Jetelina about what people need to know about the end of the COVID emergency.
