Making choices as COVID wanes

After two years, habits die hard. Many of us have grown so accustomed to strictly following the rules of pandemic life that it feels somehow unnatural to let our guard down, even a little.

Watching President Biden's State of the Union address on Tuesday night, where hardly anyone wore a mask and social distancing was spotty, we fretted. Would this turn out to be a superspreader event?

Clearly, such concern is becoming outmoded, and not only because everyone at the State of the Union had been tested as the price of admission. (It's worth noting that six tested positive.) Researchers' understanding of the coronavirus and its variants is changing, and so are the recommendations being offered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Minnesota Department of Health. Those recommendations come with a caveat: If a new mutation poses fresh danger, we may see a return of the former cautions. Some of them, anyway.

They also come with reminders: Get tested at the first sign of symptoms. Keep an eye on the rates of infection and hospitalization in your area. Get vaccinated if you haven't done so already. And when you are eligible, get a booster shot.

It's possible, maybe even likely, that you are not sure how to go about monitoring levels of COVID-19 in your community. Accordingly, the CDC has deployed a new "community levels" tool that makes the task easier. With a few clicks, anyone in the country can get a read on the number of new cases, the number of hospitalizations and the number of hospital beds that are occupied by COVID patients in their county.

If the levels in your county are low — as they are in Minnesota's Ramsey, for example — the tool suggests that you stay current with your vaccines and get tested if you show any symptoms. If the levels are high — as in northern St. Louis County, or anywhere in West Virginia — the tool suggests that you follow the same guidance for testing and vaccines, plus wear a mask while indoors in public areas and take other steps if you're at risk for severe illness.

(In Douglas County, Wis., the tool reports high levels of COVID. We noticed that Biden wore a mask there when he visited on Wednesday.)

Nowhere in the country are levels low enough that people can ignore the advice about vaccines and boosters. According to the available data, about 38% of Minnesotans have received booster shots. That's better than the national rate, and better than all but a handful of states, but it is still not good enough. Put simply, the COVID death rate for people who have been fully vaccinated and boosted is very low. It is the best defense available, period.

In his speech, Biden offered a credible path toward the long-term management of the coronavirus. Chief among his initiatives is a new "test to treat" program that would enable consumers to receive antiviral medication, for free, as soon as they get a positive test result. He also proposes to send another batch of rapid tests to American homes. And he renewed his call for Americans to do their part with vaccinations.

"We'll never give up on vaccinating more Americans," he declared.

He also made clear that he does not plan further shutdowns of businesses or schools. Biden's plan includes improved air-handling systems in public buildings. If a new variant shows up — perhaps we should make that when a new variant shows up — the administration intends to be ready to respond quickly with new vaccines. Dr. Anthony Fauci concurs that it should be possible to produce a new vaccine within 100 days.

For now, though, the big news is that for most people, in most areas of the country, it is OK to go without a mask. Even indoors. Even when other people are nearby.

If it seems too good to be true, a little too normal to be trustworthy, that's understandable. The pandemic is still far from over. On March 1, the day Biden addressed the nation, 22 COVID deaths were reported in Minnesota. The CDC now estimates that 43% of Americans have been infected, including a majority of American children.

The government may say it's OK to take off your mask, but nobody says you have to.