An uptick in COVID-19 cases as winter approaches is setting off a debate about if a new era of living with the virus has arrived or whether heightened restrictions and caution are still needed.
Cases in the U.S. have risen to more than 80,000 per day as the weather in much of the country gets colder. There are about 1,000 people dying every day from the virus, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) figures, largely among the unvaccinated.
At the same time, the widespread availability of vaccines and booster shots has made the individual risk for many people far lower.
The result is a sometimes-confusing picture where individuals and localities are trying to figure out what level of risk to accept.
Washington, D.C., for example, on Tuesday announced it is lifting its mask mandate.
“We are learning to live with COVID,” said LaQuandra Nesbitt, director of D.C.’s health department. She said the virus is becoming “endemic,” meaning it is fading into a fact of life in the background. “It’s really my way of trying to stress to people that we’ve moved away from this goal of getting to zero cases,” she said.
Other experts, though, worried the move was premature heading into the winter and with cases and deaths still at a high level.
“The way I view it is this is the last part of the crisis phase,” said Walid Gellad, professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. He said it would make sense to wait a few more weeks to allow more children under 12 to be vaccinated and to give time for powerful new antiviral treatments from Pfizer and Merck to be authorized.
D.C.’s move, he said, could be like taking “your foot off the gas right before you’re over the finish line.”
Many experts, though, said it is warranted to at least somewhat change thinking about the virus given the strong protection from vaccines, especially once people get their booster shots, and the fact that the virus is not going to be completely eliminated anytime soon.
“I am now approaching it as if now is a reasonable version of what the future is likely to look like,” said Bob Wachter, chair of the department of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.
He said if someone is unwilling to do a certain activity now because of COVID-19, one is “making a statement you’re not going to do it next year or the year after.”
“It’s no longer a short-term sprint,” he said, while noting it still could be prudent to wear masks in crowded public areas where it is unclear whether everyone is vaccinated.
Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, said it is “reasonable to start thinking about lifting mask mandates.”
But, he said, “if you can hold off on lifting these restrictions until early January I think that’s better.” That would give time to get through any holiday spike and for more children to get vaccinated.
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NEW: An uptick in COVID-19 cases as winter approaches is setting off a debate about if a new era of living with the virus has arrived or whether heightened restrictions and caution are still needed.https://t.co/RBgzXB972D
— The Hill (@thehill) November 18, 2021
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