Is The Pandemic Over In The US? Biden Thinks So

While the World Health Organization (WHO) has yet to declare the COVID pandemic over, President Joe Biden believes that it has ended in the U.S.

The president made the comment in an interview with "60 Minutes" that aired Sunday night, saying, "The pandemic is over. We still have a problem with COVID. We're still doing a lotta work on it. ... But the pandemic is over."

Biden's comments come as COVID deaths have leveled off to an average of more than 500 per day over the last two weeks, according to NBC News. More than 1 million people have died from COVID in the U.S. since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has not announced that the global pandemic is over. During a COVID briefing from the organization on Sept. 14, Tedros said, "We have never been in a better position to end the pandemic. We are not there yet, but the end is in sight."

The Biden administration has also asked Congress to provide billions of dollars in funding for COVID testing and vaccines as a surge in cases of the virus is expected this fall.

When pressed about his approval rating dipping below 50% amid the pandemic, Biden told "60 Minutes," "This is a really difficult time. We're at an inflection point in the history of this country. We're gonna make decisions, and we're making decisions now, that are gonna determine what we're gonna look like the next 10 years from now. I think you'd agree that the impact on the psyche of the American people as a consequence of the pandemic is profound.

"Think of how that has changed everything. You know, people's attitudes about themselves, their families, about the state of the nation, about the state of their communities. And so there's a lot of uncertainty out there, a great deal of uncertainty. And we lost a million people. A million people to COVID."

Health experts have warned that another COVID wave could occur this fall, urging Americans to get the latest booster shot that is targeted toward Omicron subvariants. The upgraded booster from Moderna and Pfizer was authorized for use at the end of August by the Food and Drug Administration.

To date, over 224 million Americans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.