Thank you for an excellent article! The general silence about Covid recently has been interesting. Other news such as mass shootings, war in Ukraine, economy problems, etc. have taken the forefront of the news and Covid rarely gets mentioned any more. Even though the deaths from those things appear to be less than the deaths from Covid. Unfortunately, Covid is no longer dramatic and Long Covid is apparently too boring to think about.

I was an early adopter of masking and social distancing. I remember when Covid started I began wearing masks to go to the bank or the store and in the early days was the only one doing it. Since then I have continued to mask (and double mask in some environments) and keep my distance. If it is too crowded, I don't go there at all. So far my wife and I have managed to avoid catching it. We got our shots (though are still thinking through the pros and cons of boosters given the side effects we've seen with other elders of our acquaintance). Fortunately, being retired, living in the country with few neighbours, and being introverts at heart, we have been able to avoid catching Covid. Our motivation for keeping masking and distance is the fear of Long Covid. Being in our 70s, the last thing we want is to spend our final years dealing with ongoing health issues simply because we refused to take precautions. Fortunately we have hobbies that keep us entertained and we love each others company.

I do miss restaurants and coffeeshops. However, in times of major change, one adapts or dies (possibly quite literally in the case of Covid.)

Keep up the excellent articles!