Yay the Covid Pandemic is Over!

The Pandemic is over, yay! President Joe Biden has declared that the pandemic is over. What does that mean exactly? I'm not quite sure to be honest, I feel like in a vast majority of Americans minds and actions the pandemic has been over for a while. We have vaccines, anyone who wants one should get one and has had the chance to get one. Those who don't shouldn't nor should anyone try to convince them otherwise as there's little to no societal benefit to forcing it on them. I suppose declaring the end of the pandemic means less funding goes towards covid stuff, policies like eviction moratoriums all go away, and we live with "the virus", and go on with life like we have with the flu and the common cold and everything else since the beginning of human history.

But what is it that allows us to declare the pandemic is over now. Biden said well people aren't wearing masks and they seem to be doing alright, so Buckaroo, I declare the pandemic over. It's a slight bit odd it wasn't based on numbers or the fact we have vaccines or any other "scientific" metrics. I suppose it had to end sometime, maybe now is as good a time as any or maybe it's that the mid-terms are coming up and popular opinion has shifted a lot surrounding covid compared to where the country was at a year ago

What's odd about this and what will be interesting to see is if companies will return to offices. If a company is still remote at this point they may as well stay remote, it seems to be working if they're still around. Also covid cooled off a long time ago so if you didn't return to the office six months or even a year ago, why even bother returning now? For some organizations remote may be better, for others it may not be, but let's stop pretending acting like this is a temporary thing "because of the pandemic" at this point, and just declare your a work from home company and take away the linbo of what's going on for people who may want to move away from their current location and relocate across the country but who are stuck because they may be called back into the office and need to be able to commute in.

So the pandemic is over, what does that mean to you? Does that change your life in terms of decisions you make or how you live your life in any substantial way?