1 in 26 people have covid on the west coast. 1 in 29 in the South. The rest of the country soon to follow.
There is also a new variant appearing (KP.3.1.1), which has a significant mutation which allows it to escape immunity gained from previous variants. It's expected to add to and extend the current waves.
It's less deadly than before, thankfully, and new variants haven't seemed to cause as much of a problem as the first few waves, but the new normal is still several times worse than the worst flu season, if only because it's around and spreading significantly most of the year. It's pretty neat how we are living in a time where we can watch society get significantly worse in real time on multiple fronts, including the spread of disease! And by "pretty neat" I mean:
Good thing brandon ended the pandemic by getting rid of testing, otherwise it might look bad right now!
And we're still running between +5-10% excess deaths.
With no end in sight. It's just how it is now.
Looking forward to some lib telling us excess deaths are endemic, at some point.