How the Pandemic Ends(Sort of)

In recent weeks, talks of a new wave of COVID have resurfaced, just like how the virus resurged and continue to wreak havoc in many parts of the world, including in the United States, where the vaccination progress appears to have hit the wall and there is a large segment of the population that is vaccine-hesitant to outright anti-vax. Despite news of imminent doom around the corner, most people I know or live near me have more or less downgraded COVID as their most concerning issue, save for those living in countries with lower vaccination rates. We are still wearing masks in public places that have many people going to such as supermarkets. But overall, we no longer worry much about COVID-19 in our daily lives, save for extra precaution measures taken in indoor housing that has many people. In many ways, measures to protect our health from COVID are starting to bear semblance to measures taken to protect our health from everything else that threatens us, including death by traffic accidents or other diseases. And this is how the pandemic will end in the minds of the general population: not disappear, just stop being a threat and become something that we will have to live with. Notwithstanding the emergence of new, more contagious and potentially deadly variants such as Delta, which is making headlines for its ability to bypass vaccines, most people who are fully vaccinated will still be able to live and work under relatively safe conditions. Which means the pandemic is now becoming a Pandemic of the Unvaccinated, where fully vaccinated people can return to normal for the most part while unvaccinated people are still facing the threats of hospitalization and death.

To give you a perspective, I am going to tell you how my life after getting the vaccine has worked out. During the first half of the summer, I traveled to Las Vegas and I could see the sense of revival among the city. Streets were packed with tourists and hotels were full again. When I walked through the streets of Vegas to sightsee, Almost all the people that I saw were unmasked. I was unmasked most of the time on my trip too. However, around mid-July, things changed. There were some places in the US starting to have the new wave of Delta. Thus, I need to change my habits again to adapt to the “new” normal. At home and nearby places where I live now, a small town in Indiana, I am mask-free, and I have not met a single person who lives near me wearing a mask either. Shopping malls are back to normal with people going in and out, with few wearing masks, although I could not guarantee that all people I have met are vaccinated. Most major airports that I have been through are packed with tourists once again, though all are required to wear masks. People are traveling by public transports, such as airplanes or buses, again, and scenes of empty seats are no longer common. Roads and highways were full of vehicles, unlike the first half of 2020 where scenes of empty highways were everywhere around the world. Typical annoyances such as traffic congestion have returned, though I miss the previous year when we could drive at the maximum speed on empty highways. All of these are examples of life returning to normal with extra precaution measures being taken to ensure that this normality will not be disrupted by another wave of the virus.

For me, being fully vaccinated, the pandemic is more or less over. Thanks to the vaccine, I do not need to wear a mask most of the time and I do not need to be infected. So the moral of the story is: get the vaccine. It is safe, it is effective, and it saves your lives.