Endemic
An “epidemic” is a disease that quickly affects a large number of people and then subsides. A “pandemic” is a global spread of such a disease. “Endemic” refers to a disease which continues in a given area and affects limited numbers of people.
We are entering the endemic stage of Covid in the US, where the overwhelmingly affected people are—and will continue to be—those who refuse vaccination. A respiratory disease, such as Covid, is virtually impossible to eradicate.
Thus, we are going to be living with Covid on a permanent basis. Just as with the flu or the common cold, we need to deal with it during out lives. Most of us seek flu shots and take medicine for the flu and colds if contracted. And there are now pills from Pfizer and Merck that can mitigate to some extent the effects of Covid when present. I assume these will increase in efficacy.
I’m weary of trying to understand why people refuse vaccinations and I’m beyond caring, except that they fill the hospitals, exhaust the health care system, and deny important checkups and elective surgery for others by monopolizing the staffs.
But I think it’s become clear that we have to live with this disease and therefore must stop killing small businesses and disrupting the social culture in futile attempts to try to eliminate it. Those who are willing to be vaccinated have been vaccinated for the most part. Those who refuse apparently aren’t going to change their minds, no matter what harm that causes. Fine, then learn to live (or die) with it.
