Was in Japan in late 2019 for a tourist trip with my wife -- I think that's as close to pushing our luck as we managed with COVID.
Managed to avoid it for years -- locking down initially, then slowly expanding our social bubble of trusted friends (not family). N95s when picking up to-go food from our favorite restaurants once they started reopening, while going to OB/GYN appointments, etc.
WFH was something I was already accustomed to, and working on the peripherals of public health government contracts, working on projects directly related to COVID surveillance and vaccination was quite humbling.
After hosting a vaccination pod in our living room in March 2021 (a pharmacist friend had J&J doses that were to be tossed by end-of-day -- and had multiple epipens on standby), and our social bubble also getting vaccinated, we collectively started to relax. After the Pfizer booster that fall, we at least felt better prepared should we get infected.
After a pregnancy of multiple OB/GYN visits, an emergency C-section, and a few business and leisure trips with airfare, we managed to remain unaffected as far as we could tell.
Then, after a short outing to a local bottle shop with some friends last week, we felt cold-like symptoms. After a few more days of worsening symptoms, and a couple at-home tests, there was the undeniable positive line for my wife and I. I had the brain fog and cough, she had complete loss of olfactory senses.
A week and change later, we're still waiting for that negative test to mark the end of our precautions. All symptoms but a few after effects are gone, and thankfully others in our group managed to avoid it, or were asymptomatic.
COVID is far from over, far from gone.
Much of society has deemed it endemic or irrelevant, and so for the masses, that'll be how it is until the next spooky variant, or similar virus exploits the lack of holistic societal changes that could still be employed.
I, for one, would have liked social distancing, masking when ill, innovative and sustainable packaging for to-go food from local establishments, and investments in public health infrastructure to remain.
