Emerging from the COVID pandemic, again

FILE PHOTO: A medical worker in a protective suit collects a swab sample from a resident at a makeshift nucleic acid testing site amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Beijing, China April 28, 2022. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

For much of the world, 2022 marked the beginning of the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The shift was palpable after several failed re-opening attempts in many countries. The arrival of the Omicron variant in late 2021, with its ability to re-infect people and the record spike in COVID cases that followed, initially stoked scientists' worst fears and confounded predictions for a return to normalcy.