Is the pandemic really over?

No. What ended on Thursday was the covid health emergency on public health and safety measures in the United States. In addition, the World Health Organization recently ended the covid related global health emergency.

The U.S. ended the covid health emergency because Republicans would no longer support funding for it.

What does the end of the public health emergency mean for you?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers this list of changes:

Vaccines will remain available.

Access to covid-19 vaccines will generally not be affected for now. The U.S. government is currently distributing free covid-19 vaccines for all adults and children.

Covid-19 at-home tests may not be covered by insurance.

Insurance providers will no longer be required to waive costs or provide free covid-19 tests. At the community level, some sites will continue to provide no-cost covid-19 testing for people without health insurance with symptoms related to covid-19 or who were exposed to someone with covid-19.

Treatments will remain available.

Medication to prevent severe covid-19, such as Paxlovid, will remain available for free while supplies last. After that, the price will be determined by the medication manufacturer and your health insurance coverage. Check with your healthcare provider if you need early treatment to prevent severe covid-19.

National reporting of covid-19 may change.

Some metrics will be the same, but some will change in frequency, source, or availability.

Federal human and health services will no longer be able to require labs to provide test reporting for covid-19. This will affect the accuracy of negative and positive test results for some jurisdictions. Hospitals will still be required to provide data through April 2024. Reports are switching from daily to weekly intervals.

The CDC is continuing to report data on covid-19 trends. It will rely on wastewater testing to track transmission and how the virus is mutating.

What should you do to protect yourself?

Seven million people in the U.S. have died and 7 million people have compromised immune systems.

Currently, 150 people in the U.S. are dying every day of covid. That means in 2023, 54,000 more people will die of covid.

Last week, there were more than 77,000 new Covid-19 cases, according to the CDC.

While the numbers of cases and deaths are down, it doesn’t mean that covid is gone. And, covid isn’t like the common cold. It spreads differently and it can kill you.

And, you don’t want to get long covid. While the percentage of people getting long covid is declining, but the rate of long covid among people who have had covid remains high. As of January 16, 2023, 15 percent of adults in the U.S. reported having had long COVID symptoms at some point and 6 percent reported current symptoms.

That means millions of people have had and currently have long covid. Women and older adults are more likely to develop long covid.

To protect yourself:

• Wear a mask indoors and at crowded outdoor places and events.

• Wear an N95 mask if you fly on an airplane or use public transportation.

• Keep covid tests on hand and ask visitors, especially if they’ve traveled recently, to take a test if you or someone in your family is immune compromised or is an older adult. Other risk factors are underlying health conditions such as obesity, heart disease, or diabetes.

• Make sure your vaccinations are up to date.

• Take a covid test if you have symptoms or have been exposed to someone with covid.

• Have a plan for covid testing and treatment if needed.

• Find out the latest on quarantining and cleaning if you or someone in your family gets covid.

Please continue to be careful. And, good luck to us all.