The Emergency is Dead - Long Live the PREP Act

Never Let a Good Crisis Go to Waste

Did you think the Covid emergency was over? President Biden certainly did.

But the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act didn’t get the memo. On Friday, Secretary Becerra at the US Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) announced that he intends to amend the declaration under the Act for medical countermeasures against COVID-19.

So instead of repealing the Act, parts of it are to be extended - never let a good crisis go to waste, even if it’s the end of the crisis.

The PREP Act declaration deals with vaccines, tests and treatments and provides flexibilities and protections to individuals and entities involved in providing them. This includes liability protections for entities engaged in manufacturing, distribution or administration of these Covid countermeasures.

The announcement says that even once vaccines, tests and treatments move away from being distributed under a US Government agreement and they transition to traditional pathways, the PREP Act still won’t automatically terminate.

So what will remain even after the “emergency” has finally ended?

• Coverage for Covid vaccines, seasonal influenza vaccines and Covid tests. Immunity from liability will be extended until December 2024 to pharmacists, pharmacy interns and pharmacy technicians to administer Covid and flu jabs (to over 3s) and Covid tests, regardless of any government agreement or emergency declaration;

• Federal agreements related to the provision of Covid countermeasures (including vaccines and treatments) will also be extended until December 2024;

• There will be no impact on government distributed Covid countermeasures;

• Coverage for prescribing and dispensing of Covid-19 oral antivirals will not change. This includes liability immunity for dispensing Covid treatments such as Paxlovid and Lagevrio; and

• There will be no change to the “test to treat” program.

They’ve managed to extend the crisis that has just ended to at least December 2024, more than another year and a half - bravo! And they’ve managed to sneak in flu vaccines as part of the emergency as well.

I just can’t think why they would have to extend liability immunity of these products for so long? (sarcasm).

Oh and unvaccinated non-citizens still won’t be able to travel to the US, even once the emergency is over.

Once the power-hungry politicians seize power they just can’t seem to let it go.