Raise your hand if you are tired of this Pandemic! 

When discussing the pandemic’s end, several experts said it’s likely that Omicron’s high infectivity, coupled with vaccination and past infection, will result in some type of immunity to the virus becoming common around the globe. That could lead to a transition from the pandemic’s seemingly unending state of emergency to what will likely be a long, uncomfortable coexistence with SARS-CoV-2. (The Harvard Gazette 1/20/22)

How do we transition for Pandemic to Endemic? 

 

The world has seen a lot of people infected with Covid this past year. Those infections combined with vaccines means that the virus has less hosts to infect and as that happens, the case counts drop like we are seeing now. With Omicron being less severe in those that are vaccinated and with the new tools we have for treating active infections, we being to view the situation through different lenses. Rather than looking at the number of people infected which has become harder to do based on the availability of home tests and increased asymptomatic infections, we shift our focus to different measures. Waste water is one measure that more states are beginning to use. In addition, they are looking at the number of those being hospitalized because of covid. Schools may likely use absentee rates which have always been a metric for disease in schools. Of course, the world will be on the look-out for other variants.

How will you transition away from the Pandemic in Your own Life? 

We all have our own thoughts and feeling on how this pandemic has affected ourselves, our families and our loved ones. Our comfort levels with taking off masks and resuming our before-pandemic life will vary. Let’s be understanding and kind toward each other in this new chapter or our shared lives here.