LETTER: Time to move on from COVID

The pandemic is entering its third year, and we have learned — and unlearned — many things. Vaccines are readily available to all, N95 masks will protect the wearer, and treatments and therapeutics are slowly coming into mainstream availability.

Conversely, many mask and vaccine mandates are being quashed by the courts of law, our health care industry has been deeply stressed and our track record for protecting the vulnerable elderly and immune compromised has been a crime. One-size-fits-all rules were heavy-handed and misguided: Small businesses failed, K-12 education was crushed, mental health and addiction problems were ignored, and testing and contact tracing failed as did the travel bans.

Worst of all, lockdowns and public space closures were not effective in stopping the spread or lowering mortality statistics. A case was made by Johns Hopkins University that lockdowns increased generational spread and increased mental health and suicide statistics (Feb. 5 editorial).

Our political leaders and other authorities have failed to practice risk management. Seventy percent of Americans say it is time to treat this virus as endemic such as the seasonal flu. Return to normal. Cancel the mandates. Reopen the schools, offices and public services to face-to-face normality. Americans may not handle or even recognize real risk well. Examples are as common as as texting while driving, overeating and smoking. Normal life has risks. But we do not take to mandates any better than Canadian truckers or northern European protesters. Enough.

But please show grace to those who continue to mask up as additional protection for their own health.