Is Long COVID the Next Excuse for Expanding Government and Mask Mandates? (Guest: Rik Mehta)

Health Care News Podcast

Reports have a knack for becoming public policy, and the latest report released by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Long COVID could be the next case in point. The report, more a marketing document than a medical report, recommends to “encourage or mandate policies and protocols regarding masking and social distancing in public spaces.” (emphasis added).

Today’s guest is Rik Mehta, Pharm.D., J.D., biotech entrepreneur, and former consumer safety officer at the U.S Food and Drug Administration. Mehta, who knows first-hand how politics and public policy are intertwined as a former U.S. Senate candidate in New Jersey, discusses how seriously the public should take the report. He covers whether the CDC or schools will use the report as a basis to mandate masks, how the federal government can compel people to wear masks, why the Democrats backed off from masks in early 2022, the significance of the descriptions of “discrimination” mentioned in the report by people claiming to suffer from Long COVID, what the Biden administration can do if it really wanted to help patients and the public in general, and how effective a Republican led Congress will be in staving off more COVID policies.

HHS Report: https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/healthplus-long-covid-report.pdf

Related Reading: https://heartlanddailynews.com/2022/12/hhs-report-on-long-covid-encourages-return-to-mask-mandates/