Biden’s ‘Pandemic Over’ Remark Colors Contractor Vax Arguments

President Joe Biden’s recent declaration that “the pandemic is over” played into a skeptical federal appeals court panel’s consideration of legal and constitutional arguments over the government’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors’ workers.

Minutes into the start of Wednesday’s oral argument at the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, Judge Lavenski R. Smith asked an attorney for the Biden administration to explain what effect the president’s comment during a 60 Minutes interview this week might have on this case.

“We still have a problem with Covid,” Biden said in his televised interview. “We’re still doing a lot ...