President Joe Biden elucidated his thoughts on the status of the COVID-19 pandemic in an interview with “60 Minutes” last month. “The pandemic is over. … We still have a problem with COVID. We’re still doing a lot of work on it. But the pandemic is over. If you notice, no one’s wearing masks. Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape, and so, I think it’s changing.”
Leaving aside for a moment whether the pandemic is indeed over, a breakdown of that statement reveals some truth — the pandemic is changing — and some fiction — not everyone is in pretty good shape, and there are some problematic consequences. And whether to wear masks? That is a complicated question.
While the pandemic is in a different phase than it was two-and-a-half years ago, to call it “over” displays a level of optimism that intrudes on certain facts. The U.S. will experience more than 250,000 COVID-19 deaths this year, based on how numbers are trending, fewer than in the previous two years but still a considerable number. That number is front-weighted — there were more deaths in the first half of the year than there will be in the second half — but even in the second half of 2022, American death totals from COVID-19 will approach the 58,000 of the 10-year Vietnam War.
