People Going Back to Work — Behaving as if COVID Is Done

My anecdotal evidence comes from commuter rail here in the greater Seattle area.

Today, I was surprised to see the number of people lined up to get on the train. I was thinking that if people were going to be back commuting I’d see it next Tuesday, the day after Labor Day.

And then, on the train there were very few people wearing a mask. It feels very much like the majority of people are starting to live their lives as though COVID-19 came and went and we are in a post-COVID era. Still, between 300-400 people are dying of the disease each day. That is around 10 percent of the peak number of deaths earlier in the pandemic.

I don’t know when COVID-19 will be declared “endemic” versus a pandemic. I only know that the disease can morph again and we could be taking steps backward in the number of cases and fatalities from the disease.

The next round of COVID-19 booster shots will become available in September. I have kept track of when I had my last booster shot (No. 4 vaccination) and Sept. 9 will be my five-month mark. I’ll be lined up to get the next round of boosters when they become available. This time around they are to also include the ability to target the most recent variants we have been experiencing.