NY.– Shannon Cummings, 53, has tried to move on after her husband, Larry, a university professor, died of Covid-19 in March 2020.
He flew from his home in Michigan to Southern California to attend a Harry Styles concert with family and friends. Twice a week, she meets with his group therapy classes. He began going out to lunch in public again, a step that took years.
“We lost over a million people to the pandemic,” he said. “It does not honor any of them not to live my life.”
Yet he is still grappling with the milestone the nation will mark this Thursday: an official end of sorts to the pandemic, as the Biden administration will allow the coronavirus public health emergency to expire and a separate declaration of a national emergency.
“I feel like some people never really accepted that there was an emergency going on,” Cummings said. “It’s really painful for those of us who have really experienced a loss from this.”
The end of the coronavirus public health emergency in the United States comes at a time when vaccines are effective and widely available, tests are easily accessible, and treatments have vastly improved since the start of the pandemic.
More than 1.1 million Americans have died from Covid, and the death rate has dropped markedly in recent months. In 2020 and 2021, it was the third most common cause of death; by this point in 2023, preliminary data shows, it has fallen to seventh.
But the Biden administration’s move that takes effect Thursday has caused mixed emotions for many Americans who have lost family and friends to the pandemic.
