Public Health Emergency Funding Ends, HHS Provides Transition

May 01, 2023 by Alec Stone MA, MPA, Former ONS Director of Government Affairs and Advocacy

With the anticipated end of the public health emergency looming after three years of being consumed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Xavier Becerra, secretary of the U.S. Health and Human Services (HSS), wrote a letter to state governors (https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2023/02/09/letter-us-governors-hhs-secretary-xavier-becerra-renewing-covid-19-public-health-emergency.html) praising their efforts in the pandemic, offering a supportive hand, and highlighting the Biden-Harris administration’s accomplishments in combating COVID-19.

“We have come to this point in our fight against the virus because of our historic investments and efforts to mitigate its worst impacts,” Becerra said (https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2023/02/09/letter-us-governors-hhs-secretary-xavier-becerra-renewing-covid-19-public-health-emergency.html). “We will transition our COVID-19 policies, as well as the current flexibilities enabled by the COVID-19 emergency declarations, into improving standards of care for patients. My team throughout the entire department and I are eager to partner with you to ensure this process is as seamless as possible.”

Becerra said (https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2023/02/09/letter-us-governors-hhs-secretary-xavier-becerra-renewing-covid-19-public-health-emergency.html) that the administration’s “whole-of-government approach” enabled the United States’ transition from the emergency phase.

“Over the past two years, the Biden-Harris administration has effectively implemented the largest adult vaccination program in U.S. history, with nearly 270 million Americans receiving at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine,” Becerra said (https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2023/02/09/letter-us-governors-hhs-secretary-xavier-becerra-renewing-covid-19-public-health-emergency.html). That and other efforts resulted in (https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2023/02/09/letter-us-governors-hhs-secretary-xavier-becerra-renewing-covid-19-public-health-emergency.html):

Hear oncology nurses’ voices from the frontlines of that work in the Reflections on COVID-19 and Cancer Care: Stories by Oncology Nurses audiobook (https://view.ons.org/audio-2dWM2E?ref=CO) or volume 1 (https://www.ons.org/books/reflections-covid-19-and-cancer-care-stories-oncology-nurses) and volume 2 (https://www.ons.org/books/reflections-covid-19-and-cancer-care-stories-oncology-nurses-volume-2) of the printed edition.


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