According to the White House, this next booster should be the last.

The next round of COVID vaccine boosters are probably going to be a sign of things to come. According to stories like this one from NPR, the new rounds of vaccines and boosters should last longer and may only be needed annually instead of in sporadic fits and starts as they're developed.

This is probably the start of the end of how some consider this to be a pandemic and eases into an endemic. I know there are all kinds of things that go into those definitions, and I'm not one to argue with them. This does feel pretty much like the new normal though, that COVID is here to stay and that its treatment is marginally under control, in ebbs and flows, and can be kind of treated the same as other concerning viruses, like bird flu and Ebola.

I don't think it's over, but we've been treating it like it is. We rarely mask. We do socially distance. We mostly avoid really crowded places, and tend to go to the grocery store (or others) one parent at a time. We still have a stack of home tests, and someone takes one now and then, as a spot check or if symptoms or situations seem to make it necessary. They (thankfully) always seem to come out negative.

The kids started school, and we're going to school events. There aren't masks on every face. The few masks that are worn are just as likely to be worn poorly, such as fake beards. We hesitate to sneeze or cough in public, or make certain every one knows it's just a tickle or something small, and not COVID.

It's been a different summer. It's becoming a normal school year. We're still working from home, and all that other stuff. We're not as afraid as we were before.

Everyone is healthy.