WASHINGTON: The United States has formally declared the coronavirus pandemic over, more out of exhaustion and capitulation than victory.
Even though the seven-day average of Covid-related deaths has risen to 2,600 in recent days, the highest in a year, with the US accounting for nearly 100,000 of the half-million deaths caused by the Omicron variant, the country has decided that it has had enough of being cooped up, with the state after state abandoning strict protocols and mask mandates.
Focusing on the decline in cases and hospitalizations ahead of deaths, which is a lagging indicator, leading pandemic expert Anthony Fauci said on Wednesday that the US is no longer amid a full-fledged pandemic and that local governments and individuals can relax restrictions based on local numbers.
"As we get out of the full-blown pandemic phase of Covid-19, which we are certainly heading out of, these decisions will increasingly be made on local level rather than centrally decided or mandated. There will also be more people making their own decisions on how they want to deal with the virus," Fauci told the Financial Times, even as several Democratic-run states such as New York and California got ahead of federal guidelines to dump some mask mandates.
As much as the declining number of instances and hospitalizations, which disproportionately afflict the elderly, the fundamental motivation for the relaxation appears to be public exhaustion, which has been documented in various surveys as irritation and resignation.
A Monmouth University poll found that 7 in 10 Americans (70%) agreed with the sentiment that "it's time we accept that Covid is here to stay and we just need to get on with our lives" - the political break up of respondents being 89% Republicans, 71% independents, and 47% of Democrats.
A separate Kaiser Family Foundation study found that over 75% of adults were "tired" of the pandemic and "frustrated" with the mandates, even though most people will get the virus at some point.
After weeks of criticising the governor's decision, Democrats in Virginia, a Republican-controlled state, joined Republicans in making school masks optional.
The World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are nonetheless wary of premature relaxation.
"We're concerned that a narrative has taken hold in some countries that because of vaccines, and because of omicron's high transmissibility and lower severity, preventing transmission is no longer possible, and no longer necessary. Nothing could be further from the truth," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus said at a briefing last week, warning that it would be "premature for any country either to surrender, or to declare victory" against the coronavirus.
It appears that the majority of Americans are unconcerned; they've had enough.