Critics slammed White House's mixed messaging after officials were forced to backpedal President Biden's statement declaring the COVID pandemic "over."
Erica Kious, the former owner of the salon visited by Nancy Pelosi during the height of the pandemic, joined "Fox & Friends First" Wednesday alongside research scientist Dr. Houman Hemmati and New Jersey mother Anna Da Silva to discuss the clarification following his remarks over the weekend.
"It's time to be free of this pandemic," Kious told co-host Todd Piro. "We already know the precautions. We knew the precautions after a few months of the pandemic coming out. It's just like, let the people go back to work. Let us be comfortable."
"Let us work without… sitting on pins and needles and wondering if they're going to shut us down tomorrow," she continued.
Biden gave an interview with "60 Minutes" over the weekend saying the pandemic is "over," but since then, the White House has somewhat retreated from the claim.
"The pandemic is over," Biden said. "We still have a problem with COVID. We're still doing a lot of work on it."
Dr. Fauci was quick to elaborate on what the president "really meant," saying Biden's remarks were highlighting the fact that the severity of the pandemic has diminished.
Fauci told Politico, ""What he really meant is that the very severe stage of the pandemic of having … 3,000 deaths a day — that stage is no longer present."
But Dr. Hemmati remains concerned that despite many agreeing the pandemic is over, many politicians are still using it as a ploy for power.
"I think it's a slippery slope," Hemmati said. "It sets a dangerous precedent when you have a president who acknowledges the absolutely obvious truth that the pandemic is over, the virus itself may still linger, but the actual pandemic emergency that justifies those emergency powers is over."
"It really makes no sense for the government to continue acting like they're an emergency, whether it's the FDA, whether it's any other aspect of the government, and it's time for the people to really vote with their feet and begin to say, you know what, we're not accepting this anymore," he continued.
