ASAPScience asks 'When Will COVID End?'

I'm not through posting about the pandemic this week, even after Joe Hanson of PBS Digital's 'Be Smart' describes what he's learned first-hand about Omicron, a pandemic update yesterday. That's because the virus isn't done with us even though a lot are acting as if they're done with it and also because YouTube's algorithm recommended ASAPScience asking When Will COVID End?

Coming up on two years of the Coronavirus pandemic, how much longer will it last? Is it like the Spanish flu or will it never go away?

It could be like both. The pandemic may finally end, but COVID-19 may always be with us, as another common cold virus, although I think it will be an "uncommon cold" in its effects for years, if not decades, to come if it becomes endemic. That's not reassuring. I expect to be wearing masks during cold and flu season and getting annual booster shots for new strains for the forseeable future. Sigh.

As for getting rid of it altogether, we missed two opportunities already, first in the summer of 2020 when what looked like a second wave hit the U.S. South and then last summer when Delta arrived in the U.S. I don't know if we'll get a third chance unless and until Omicron burns itself out, which it probably will in a month or two. Double sigh.