Nobody's saying the disease is eradicated. It just no longer fits the definition as a pandemic. I don't understand why some find this upsetting.

With yet more bad news out of the Supreme Court, let's reflect again on those who said there was no difference between Clinton and Trump.

You gotta wonder how many people this staunchly pro-life scotus is going to get killed over the few decades

The Astros gift-wrapped the game to us, and as Seattleites, we were so polite we gift-wrapped it back!
So much for baseball being a distraction from national news!

@4: Yes, and many of those same brilliant persons had also told us there was no difference between Al Gore and W., either. Not a group of fast learners, that bunch.

Good thing voters in Seattle’s District 3 would never tolerate hearing such nonsense from any of their elected officials, eh?

At how many daily Covid deaths would it be OK to drop the emergency? 200? 100? 10? Zero isn't happening because Americans continue to be old, have co-morbidities, and refuse to vaccinate because they're extra-special Individualists.

I think we're all pretty burned out on it 30 months on.

@8 You are not wrong. But there are serious issues here.

The problem is not dropping the emergency declaration. It has to end sometime. The problem will be the resistance to reactivating it if things get worse. Because:

A) We have stopped counting. So we won't know until things are on the precipice of getting dire.
B) Politicians do not want to take the economic hit again even IF the outcome to the economy will be worse doing nothing.
C) This was a short term economic decision and not a long-term public health one.

What public health officials want is better policies and more resources to prevention. These are provided under the declaration. Once it's over so will attention to prevention. Being burned out is no excuse to not prepare and educate our society. But we have allowed economic interests and political cultists to frighten us out of even the barest preventions. Old people, sick people people with pre-existing conditions - that is 120 million Americans. We don't have the luxury of writing them off if we want a functioning economy. 1.5 million deaths and our economy was already fucked. We cannot let that go on. Impairing huge portions of the population every six months is killing our economy. What we are witnessing is the quintessential ignorance of American short term market economic thinking.

This is not going to be the last we will see of Covid19. And worse. It's not going to be the last we see of pandemics in our lifetime. And judging by the abysmal response to collective action of almost 1/3 of American society that does not bode well.

So. It would be great if rather than just saying "whatever, it's officially over." we actually look at what we can do to prevent the possible resurgence and or the next one. And we are most certainly not doing that.

Get your bi-valent COVID-19 booster shots, people.

You'll really wish you had them.

@10: there's plenty of sources for Covid stats. "we" haven't stopped counting. for instance, 80% of the deaths in September were >65. 40% are over 85. learned that today.

getting burned out after panicking for 30 months is a normal human response. i think gubmints are realizing the current approach has outlived its usefulness.

if the COVID don't
getchya the Long Covid
may. Mask and Vax UP peeps

don't let "Republicans"
fool you into Be-
lieving Life is
so damn
Cheap.

also

"… since treating people humanely costs more than ruthlessly exploiting their labor for your own profit."

oh.
so you
HATE CAPITALISM

fucking
COMMIES
are Everywhere.
--@the Fascists

"… presumably this [nudging space rocks] means we won't be so vulnerable to the fate that rendered them [stupid Dinosaurs] delicious planet-killing fuel for our automobiles."

well we're More at the
Mercy of Unbridled
Capitalists* than
silly little as-
teroids

*they just keep
Pourin' on the KKKoal

@12 This is a bizarre comment that didn't deal remotely with the thrust of mine.

Maybe you panicked for 30 months but I didn't panic for 30 months. I used accurate data and informed myself. That is not as possible now.

There is no wide spread testing anymore. Few at home tests are being sold. Most positive tests are not reported. We are no longer seeing accurate numbers on emerging cases so we cannot adequately predict waves. Even deaths are way underreported at this point. Excess death statistics prove that. Certainly long covid is under-reported. We could have ended the emergency declaration with a prepared, trusted and revitalized public health infrastructure. But we didn't. So I guess prepare to panic again.

We have accepted the endemic era. And we did not have to. And we have accepted it without proper preparation for what follows.

Which is this: American life expectancy has now contracted and will continue to contract. So. Good job everyone.

@5 Brent Gumbo: Although I'm fortunate to have my reproductive years behind me (JEEZUS, what horrifyingly prompt timing for a bilateral hysterectomy!), I share your concerns and outrage. This current SCROTUS is a criminal disgrace.

@6 pat L: It's just the first game against the Houston Astros. The MLB playoffs ain't over yet. Go, Mariners!

@11 Will in Seattle: I recently got my Omicron booster (Pfizer shot #5) and annual flu shot. Hopefully I'm good to go.

@15 RogertheShrubber: Imagine what a calm utopian society we could have had if Al Gore and Hillary Clinton had served as 43rd and 45th Presidents of the United States.

Sorry. I do not think that democrats are our saviors. They are not fascists so they have that part going for them. Which is what it appears to me we have right now. The struggle between fascism and antifascism.

RogertheShrubber: I appreciate your inciteful and intelligent wisdom. Thank you.

Once again Harrell proves himself to be the worst mayor, socially speaking,
Seattle has ever had. However, I do not know anything about the nineteenth and early twentieth century mayors so I cannot rule them out.

The budget: almost half goes to law enforcement. The same police force that is constantly being sued by mostly people of color’s families for the relentless police murders. The same police force that had a number of currently employed cops travel and participate in the attack on the capital in Washington, D.C. The same police force that engages in harassment and brutality towards some of our most vulnerable -the homeless-.

No move that I can observe has been made to reduce this force and indeed it appears it has received more dollars from the budget.

So where are the social workers and mental health workers that we want to replace them? The funds for social housing that people need to go on with their lives? So Many more do not die on the streets. Harrell is a great mayor for the rich but horrible for the rest of us.

                    Cry Me a River if you are ok with this.

@17: “The budget: almost half goes to law enforcement.”

The proposed Seattle City Budget for 2023 is $7.4 billion. Public Safety, of which SPD is one part, totals $802 million, or 11 percent. (https://www.seattle.gov/documents/Departments/FinanceDepartment/2324proposedbudget/ChartsandTables.pdf)

“The same police force that engages in harassment and brutality towards some of our most vulnerable -the homeless-.”

Give a single example, with url, of even one SPD officer brutalizing a homeless person.

“No move that I can observe has been made to reduce this force and indeed it appears it has received more dollars from the budget.”

That’s because these pesky persons, called “Seattle voters,” participated in a series of events called “November 2021 elections,” in which the City Attorney who had allowed unrestricted camping lost his job, a Republican took his place, and Mayor Harrell won in a massive citywide landslide.

Your refusal to recognize reality suggests you’ll be enjoying many more such elections.

@17 Ivy R. Nightscales: If nothing else, we would most likely not be losing a world-ending war against climate change and its profiteering capitalist RepubliKKKan deniers had Al Gore served even just one term in the White House. We wouldn't be trillions in debt from the senseless 20-year war from 2001 to 2021 to protect Bush oil interests. I'm just stating facts.