WASHINGTON — President Biden on Friday rescinded several COVID-19 executive orders. That includes one imposed on his first day in office to require people to wear masks inside federal facilities.
Biden’s Executive Order 13991 The document, titled “Protecting Federal Employees and Requiring Mask-Wearing,” states that outgoing President Donald Trump and his aides rarely wear masks and are focused on “reopening” from lockdowns. , was issued in response to the sharp polarization of wearing masks.
More than four years after the virus introduced mobile morgues in New York and shuttered schools and businesses across the country, the White House said in an announcement Friday afternoon that the order is “hereby revoked.” .
Under the previous order, federal agencies were ordered to “take immediate action” to “mandate compliance with CDC guidelines regarding mask-wearing, physical distancing, and other public health measures.” Federal employees on duty or in the field. Federal contractors on site. All persons in federal buildings or on federal land. ”
Mandatory mask-wearing has long since subsided, with the White House introducing its own version more than two years ago in March 2022 after the CDC adjusted mask recommendations to account for local risk reflected in hospitalization rates. The obligation to wear masks has been abolished.
Biden on Friday announced Executive Order 13998, adopted on January 21, 2021, which required mask-wearing on planes, trains and buses, and President Trump’s March 23, 2020, medical supplies package. Presidential Decree No. 13910, which prohibits the hoarding of food, was also rescinded. supplies.
The announcement also ended federal jobs created to manage the pandemic.
“Position of new coronavirus infection response coordinator” [vacant since June 2023] and Deputy Coordinator for COVID-19 Response…are hereby fired,” Biden declared.
The development marks a near-complete return to pre-pandemic rules after a gradual easing of enforcement.
In June 2022, Biden lifted the requirement for travelers entering the United States, including U.S. citizens, to present a negative coronavirus test.The rules have been announced in January 2021 The end of the Trump administration.
In May 2023, Biden announced a September 2021 mandate requiring all federal employees to get a coronavirus vaccine or lose their jobs unless they receive a religious or medical exemption. was terminated.
Other pivots back to the pre-pandemic status quo have worried Biden’s critics, including the Biden administration. Decision to resume fundraising in April 2023 For a group called EcoHealth Alliance Risky US-funded “gain of function” research He conducted research on coronaviruses at a lab in Wuhan, China, before the pandemic broke out in the same city in late 2019.
The FBI and Department of Energy assess that the pandemic likely began with a lab breach.
Recent scientific research in China on the same virus family has raised concerns that reckless research could lead to future pandemics.
Nearly 1.2 million U.S. residents have died from COVID-19; according to CDC data. Roughly 400,000 of the deaths occurred during Trump’s term as president, and the rest occurred under the Biden administration.
