The pandemic itself is over- that does not mean that Covid variants are not out there and infecting and killing people. I believe we got back to a normal existence- we are pretty much living normally- people are dining out, going to parties and sporting events, and for the most part living like they did before the pandemic ( I am not one of them because I haven't been vaccinated in a long time)--- I believe people getting the vaccine was responsible for the virus receding as a pandemic--- also, many people did mask up- not everyone of course- but many people did. And there were lockdowns (which caused extremists to lose their minds)--- The Governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, became the target of angry extremists for taking strong action against the pandemic including lockdowns----I am glad she did that. I see comments from people on, for example, Yahoo, who call the pandemic a hoax and believe that "big pharma" manufactured these "shots" which they say are not vaccines, just to make money. These are strange times
My take on this is that it is (mistakenly, IMO) no longer a declared emergency, which is a governmental designation unrelated to the biological spread of infections. And maybe some governmental entities have also declared the pandemic over (did they switch that designation to endemic? I can't recall).
But in any case I think they were wrong to do so and I think the actual transmission of the disease has not waned much. Differing variants are more or less transmissible, and more or less symptomatic, or have symptoms less likely to be identified as covid (such as headaches, or stomach issues rather than respiratory issues). There is a perception that fewer people are dying of it, but I don't know if that's actually true.
As a decent proportion of the population now catches covid on a regular basis, they have some degree of immunity for a few months following each infection. And people may be entirely unaware of some or all of their infections (if they are asymptomatic or have mild or nonrespiratory symptoms).
I think the societal impact of covid will probably re-emerge into people's awareness in the next few years, as the proportion of people functionally disabled by Long Covid becomes noticeable across the culture (such as it being harder to find workers for jobs that require a level of physical stamina). Those impacts will become obvious (IMO) even if people don't initially recognize the problems as being covid-related. Eventually I hope medical research will make the case clearly.
I think very few people are protected by vaccine by now, since any protection (and said protection is not against infection at all, but only against severe symptoms) wanes after 3-4 months, and so many people haven't gotten one in longer than that.
Even worse is that virtually no one still masks -- even in places where masks were standard prior to the pandemic, such as cancer treatment centers etc! To me that is horrifying.
With an infection that has such a high frequency of being fully asymptomatic, the ONLY way I can see to slow the spread is for people to mask when they are in enclosed spaces with others, especially crowds. So I really grieve when I see that masking is not only not happening much anymore, but that the culture is actually discouraging it. In some places to the point of legally barring it under some irrelevent faux-concerns. The virus is apolitical but will continue to thrive in such environments.
Again and always, MOO.
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