The plan to move from the pandemic phase of the coronavirus to the endemic phase announced by Governor Newsom and California’s health official, Dr. Mark Ghaly, has a name to it.
As you’ve heard us reporting, it’s called the 'SMARTER' plan with each letter in that word standing for the 7-points to move forward now that the highly contagious Omicron COVID surge is ending.
SMARTER stands for shots, masks, awareness, readiness, testing, education and RX, or drugs and treatments for the disease.
But they made it clear this doesn’t mean that the coronavirus that invaded our state and our country two years ago is going away. As many health experts have been saying, the coronavirus that leads to COVID disease is going to be around for some time, and maybe always, in some form, such as the flu or the common cold.
In other words, as the Governor and Dr. Ghaly said, their plan moving forward is about doing what we have to do to live with the virus and being ready if we have another nasty variant or even a new virus come along.
So two years after the pandemic began, it looks like we won’t hear the word pandemic as much in the months ahead. And as we move forward, there is no doubt that we’d all like to put that word well behind us.
(Photo Getty Images)