The Encouraging News We Need About Pandemic

We are seeing the encouraging signs about the pandemic that we want to see as we mark the two years this month since the first reported case in the U.S. in January of 2020.

Many of us poo-pooed it, thinking, or maybe hoping, that it wouldn’t be a huge problem in the U.S. that it would be like previous flu viruses from Asia that we’d get through easily.

But once the pandemic was officially declared and you heard people start mentioning the deadly pandemic of 1918 and 1919, we all realized this coronavirus thing could be a big problem.And as cases rose and hospitalizations went up and the number of deaths increased, the then the shutdowns started, it had become pretty clear this was serious.

Now two years later, after that first U.S. case, after ups and downs and after various strains of the COVID virus, here we are. And things are thankfully very different.The biggest difference of course being the vaccines. They have and are proving that they are safe and effective at preventing almost everyone among the hundreds of millions who has gotten the shots from getting seriously ill or dying.

And now after these two very long and very weary years, we are seeing encouraging news, with the number of cases of what has been the most contagious strain of the virus. Omicron, falling.And we’re seeing more schools reducing or eliminating distance learning and we are seeing companies starting at least hybrid return to the office work schedules.

That doesn’t mean the pandemic is over with hospitals still facing critical over-crowded conditions.

But health experts appear to be cautiously optimistic now that we are getting closer to what we all want, normal.

READ MORE about history of the COVID pandemic.

(Photo Getty Images)