Plays and movies have three acts. The first act sets the scene and shows what life was life before an inciting incident happens like the spread of a deadly virus around the world. The second act is an active attempt to return life to normal but that act seems to have been botched by most politicians and public health experts. We are still in the second act of this pandemic play. The virus continues to kill 400 to 500 people every day in America however the actors on the stage seem content to accept this level of death as they dream of returning to life as normal. They wander the stage and breath in each others mask less faces satisfied that they have not died from the virus and therefor who cares about anyone else.
So how does the third act play out? Is a peaceful transition where everyone ignores that the pandemic even happened and the virus magically disappears? The fact is that the virus is here to stay and there will be more waves as variants change and adapt to infect more clueless actors. Even the COVID deniers are surprised when friends and loved ones become infected. America does a magnificent job of quietly disposing of the dead while the living remain happily ignorant.
Some day scientists should be able to bring the devastating nature of this virus more under control. But for now, no one knows what lies ahead. Europe is once again seeing a spike in cases of COVID-19. 9 countries are seeing their hospitalizations increase. In France case numbers have doubled in the last couple of weeks. The levels are still rather low compared to the huge spikes earlier in the pandemic. In the past, Europe has offered the United States and early look at what is coming.
The bottom line is that Americans are done with the virus. The virus however is not done with Americans. Personally I went in to get my 5th shot of COVID vaccine which is intended to combat the latest Omicron variants. Only 2% of Americans have chosen to get this extra jab. To me it is a no brainer, but for so many, denial is the considered the better option.