USA.- For millions of Americans, the Covid-19 emergency, in which disorienting shutdowns, mandates, anxiety and exhaustion came to a quiet end sometime in the past two years, due to vaccines and antiviral drugs.
This Thursday, the expiration of that federal public health emergency was a formality that was barely noticed.
Although the signs are still everywhere in a country that has changed: in many of the thousands of families who mourn a loss in silence, in the problems of those who suffer from long Covid and the dependence of many Americans on one of the most important tools. debated about the pandemic: the mask.
“This is the new normal,” said Nicole Uhing, 38, who wears a mask and was stacking books on a shelf at a Des Moines Public Library branch.
Uhing, who said wearing a mask made her feel more comfortable in her workplace, was not fazed by the government’s decision. “It does not seem that the Covid is going to disappear. It keeps changing and evolving.”
In interviews conducted across the country on Thursday, most people received the news of the government’s decision without relief or alarm, but rather with a sense of resignation.
Many described being more accustomed to public health risks, and also to ways in which they can defend themselves against those risks, usually with government help. Now, they are mostly on their own.
“It has not finished. I know people who have the virus right now,” said María Paula, 52, a servant who lives in Brooklyn.
“I’m tired of wearing a mask, but the virus is still here.”
