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Just like the year before, the pandemic was the silent uninvited guest at gatherings this past holiday season. As we now enter year three of dealing with Covid, it’s only human nature to wonder when we will return to normalcy. But if “normalcy” is defined as completely eradicating Covid-19, we’ll never be normal again, as the likelihood that we’ll face another variant like omicron or delta, not to mention a future coronavirus or another pathogen, is very real. (Francis deSouza, 1/12)

In late summer Candice Davis and her brother, Starr, returned to South Philadelphia from a trip to Mexico, and Davis quickly knew that something was wrong. Both she and Starr felt ill, and both subsequently tested positive for COVID-19. But Starr, who had been immunized, experienced only mild flulike symptoms and felt better within a few days. For his unvaccinated sister, a nightmare began to unfold. (Carolyn Barber, 1/12)

From the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the risk of getting infected with the coronavirus and developing severe disease from it was substantially higher for the millions of Americans with weakened immune systems because of treatment for cancer, autoimmune disorders, transplants and many other conditions. Vaccines promised a respite. But physicians like us who care for immunocompromised people quickly learned that our patients’ immune responses from vaccines were often weak. (Dorry Segev and William Werbel, 1/13)

With the holiday travels and gatherings behind us, we can expect that the next few weeks will see an unprecedented surge in COVID infections and hospitalizations. As an immunologist with a Ph.D. and over 40 years’ experience, it has been extremely frustrating to see high levels of noncompliance with common-sense COVID safety precautions that are recommended by many health organizations. I’ve been called stupid, an idiot, or worse many times for advocating wearing masks and getting vaccinated. Nevertheless, I persist. (John F. Krowka, 1/11)

Even as COVID-19 cases spiked last month, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cut in half the amount of time that people should remain in isolation after infection if they are without symptoms — and eliminated the recommendation that they get a negative test before they start interacting with other people. The change caused an outcry among many scientific experts who thought it was reckless. Just a week earlier, the CDC reduced the amount of time that healthcare workers were advised to stay off the job after a coronavirus infection if they tested negative and were symptom-free. (1/12)

We are graduate students who can access free COVID-19 PCR tests in minutes through our university, despite not taking any classes in person. Meanwhile, our friends who are health care workers must often wait days to get tested because of a lack of access to testing, even though they are at a much higher risk of catching and spreading the virus. Massachusetts is reporting an average of 25,000 new COVID-19 cases a day, with levels expected to rise and Omicron being the dominant COVID-19 variant. Massachusetts residents have been forced to wait in hours-long lines to get tested, and even though state and local governments have begun to distribute rapid antigen tests to some communities, many people remain unable to access testing. (Haley Sullivan and Leah Pierson, 1/12)

At the start of “Station Eleven” (both the excellent novel and the excellent TV show), a pandemic kills 99% of all the people on Earth in the span of roughly an afternoon. The remaining 1% struggle a wee bit to adjust to a new world without a functioning government, grocery supplies or Wordle. (Mark Gongloff, 1/12)

Nothing crystallizes one's opinions on this winter of Omicron like getting a breakthrough case during the holidays. In between Netflix offerings during quarantine, I had plenty of time to consider our two-year COVID nightmare, and what 2022 holds for folks like me who now have antibodies, and those who don't—and for folks like me who are vaccinated and boosted, and those who aren't. As with many other issues, the first concern is language. Did I really have a "breakthrough case?" The term suggests the virus broke through a shield that should have kept it out. I've been a longtime vaccine advocate, but I never viewed my Moderna shots as a guarantee of never getting sick. (Mark Davis, 1/12)