Today is the first post-pandemic day in Washington State. No official, either political or medical, has made that declaration yet, but this morning Covid-19 moved from being a pandemic to being an endemic disease that, like the "common cold" and various "flu" strains, will be with us forever. Will more people become symptomatic? Yes. Will more people need hospitalization with severe symptoms? Yes. Will more people die? Yes. The Bubonic Plague, Tuberculosis and Polio still exist yet people go about their lives without regard to the millions who were killed by these earlier pandemics. While we can't forget the millions of individuals who have died from Covid-19, we need to go on with our lives without worrying about contracting, passing the virus to loved ones, or dying from it... Perhaps easier said than done.

Masks are still required on public transit and in public transit facilities. Here in Bremerton that mostly means the ferry system. To many around the country it means commercial airplanes. But that looks to end in mid-April.

I saw interviews on local television news that some local businesses are hesitant to relax their individual requirements. They can be hesitant all they want but I believe that the overwhelming majority of people want to forego masks. Businesses may keep asking patrons to mask, but I like millions of others have the abilty to choose which businesses we enter. Many will choose not to patronize businesses with customer mask requirements. The marketplace will settle this issue and I believe that it will be settled quickly (days...not months).

Another issue are the "immunocompromised" who feel (any many actually are) threatened by any communicable disease. Should we be forced to wear masks to protect them? Fortunately, this has been decided in the negative by lack of action by the federal government. The government could easily have declared that being "immunocompromised" is protected class. Under federal law, employers cannot discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, or disability. So far, being "immunocompromised" does not fall into this category. If it did, the "immunocompromised" would be able to take action against employers who don't require masks (for all ... employees and customers). Fortunately, for the rest of us, the genie stayed in the bottle, and it may be too late to change these rules.

We are never going back to the 2019 version of normal. We will decide as a society between now and the end of April what the new normal will look like.