Pandemic status over for US, says Fauci

Which if you heard Fox this morning, the announcer said "Fauci pivots once again". I muttered quite loudly well that is why it is called an endemic and we might have gotten here sooner if people had worked together. I then turned on my happy music to finish getting ready.

Well, my dh had it last week, but it was very, very mild. And I (knock wood) didn't catch it, nor did my dd#3, who lives with us.

So, while people still are getting it, it's certainly not as dangerous as it was, to most (I of course recognize that it can be very dangerous to some.)

Exactly. Cases ticking up are not particularly significant from a public health standpoint if they're not accompanied by an uptick in serious illness/death.

Yes, @dottyscrapper has it spot on. Now I just worry that the idiots will take this as "Oh, it's basically gone, nothing to worry about, everything 100% as normal!" To me, it means that we can still live life, but that we do have a new normal (yeah, one of our favorite phrases) and we still need to proceed with caution. Wear masks when numbers are going up, be smart about what we do, don't stand right smack up against people in line and breathe down on them (yeah, talking to you, dude at the post office who was wayyyy too close for even pre-pandemic courtesy!), get vaxxed/boostered as appropriate, etc.

We can't forget the procedures that got us to this point, and we need to still implement them when situations warrant.

Hey Fauci - perhaps you can get US to drop 1 day covid test for re-entry for vaccinated and boosted citizens please!

My daughter got COVID over a week ago. The first day she felt really lousy and the next couple of days she had a runny nose. On the whole it was a mild case. Neither my husband nor I caught it. We are all vaxed and boosted.

I just went to pick up my medication from my pharmacy, which is inside my medical provider's building.  They are still requiring masks for everyone that enters.  They have stopped taking your temperature via standing in front of a machine.  I figure as long as they are requiring a mask, I will wear one everywhere.  Don't even let anyone make you feel bad about wearing yours!  You are doing so for the right reason and if they can't figure that out, so be it.

Right...but how many people will hear that as "Covid is gone?" Around here, I'm betting a fair share. 

This article explains Fauci’s comments really well. Between vaccinations and acquired immunity, especially from omicron, our collective immunity levels are fairly high at the moment. More than 60% of the US population and 75% over age 11 have had covid.  Treatments, especially the new pill one are really effective (90%) at preventing hospitalizations.  We’re in a much better place, but covid is not over.  We’re still in a pandemic, it’s just decelerating and approaching the control phase.

www.npr.org/2022/04/27/1094997608/fauci-us-pandemic-phase-covid-19

"We are certainly right now in this country out of the pandemic phase," Fauci said in an interview with PBS NewsHour. "Namely, we don't have 900,000 new infections a day and tens and tens and tens of thousands of hospitalizations and thousands of deaths. We are at a low level right now."

"So if you're saying, 'Are we out of the pandemic phase in this country?' — we are," he said.

But in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, Fauci said the pandemic isn't over. "We are in a different moment of the pandemic," he said. After a brutal winter surge, Fauci added, "we've now decelerated and transitioned into more of a controlled phase. By no means does that mean the pandemic is over."

Let's be real, this will always be around just like the flu is always around. We need to find a way to live with it the best way possible. DH is totally against masks (but did wear them when required) says he thinks masks in medical facilities may never go away and says that actually makes sense. There are sick people there and people coming in sick so do what you can to reduce the spread. In the general public, wear one if you want, but don't expect others to. If you don't want to wear a mask then leave those that do alone. Let everyone have their freedom, their right, to decide their comfort level.

AMEN!!!!  I hear you.  We are traveling to Greece in June and I would like nothing more than to not have to pay $150 out of pocket to get my 4 family members and myself tested.  We are one of the only countries still doing this.  I'm fine with wearing a mask on my flight but I don't want to have to worry about getting stuck in another country.

Without the mask mandate, it makes sense to me to keep the testing requirement, to make sure the person you're sitting next to in close quarters doesn't have Covid. And sorry, but I'm not sympathetic to the cost of the testing. If you can afford an overseas trip, you can afford the tests. Americans should consider it a cost of international travel, similar to baggage fees. We have no current plans to travel but have travelled overseas in the past and I wouldn't object to paying now.

There are gaps and inconsistencies with the rule, like the fact that it's not required for domestic flights, but I don't think we should drop the testing requirement right now. Especially given the transmission of the BA.2 variant in other parts of the world. I don't think we should keep it indefinitely, I can see us dropping it at some point in the near future. Or modifying it to require testing in areas where the transmission is high. Maybe when worldwide vaccination rates are higher we can drop the testing requirement.

this was written before the mask mandate ended

www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/04/12/us-travel-testing-requirement-covid/