According to the news yesterday, the White House is planning to end the pandemic in May.

That's just a provocative statement. Clearly the pandemic isn't over, although news articles have indicated some shifts from pandemic to endemic, meaning this is here to stay and we'll treat it like we do the flu. CNN reports that the WHO still says it's a global emergency, but says it's in transition. With the vaccines and shifts in work and social distancing, we've managed to mitigate some of the impacts if you happen to get it, and since we're unlikely to find a cure, that's probably the best we'll be able to do.

NPR reports that the White House is planning to end the emergency declarations put in effect in 2020. The super brief document shares the plan comes from a statement opposing House bills to end it sooner, and contains a brief statement about how this could be catastrophic. I'm not sure what the details are, but I can imagine this won't be a quick "it's over" declaration and things will be as they were before the pandemic.

In a conversation at my office, we confirmed that the hybrid working model we have now is the way it's going to stay. Most people work away from the office, usually from their homes. The office is open and available for anyone to use at any time. My team, and others, generally pick a day to gather at the office, if desired, but are leveraging the office as desired. We have a number of full-time remote people, who don't even live in the state, and that will continue to be a smaller slice, but a constantly evaluated opportunity.

Other than work, we're still mildly in pandemic mode. We're mostly staying home, frustrated with restaurants more than afraid of them, and except for the occasional theater or sports event, try to avoid crowds. We do shop, with the kids and as a family, but try to keep our distance. We don't wear masks any more, unless someplace asks us to. We work, from home, the kids go to school, and participate in after-school events. So, more mildly in pandemic mode every day.

I'm looking forward to it being over. I'd like to hear that deaths and serious illness are on a steady decline even more. The flu is a serious illness, but most of us let it not stress us too much, and many don't even bother with the vaccines when they are made available. I suspect the COVID variants will become the same. There's likely to not be a cure, as there haven't been for so many other things we deal with.

Everyone's healthy.