March 11, 2020: “WHO declares corona virus disease pandemic.” March 11, 2021: “Government says in person nursing home visits OK.” Who would have thought in a year we’d be turning this corner already? That’s who, little letters, not WHO. I don’t know that WHO is that optimistic. The CDC is not that optimistic either if you read beyond the headline. Not unlike another headline from this week, “Fully vaccinated people can have small gatherings indoors.”

It’s been a year. More than a year really as WHO probably should have declared the pandemic a pandemic 2 or 3 or maybe more weeks earlier than it did. People want to return to normal even though many can’t define normal. I will say that we are approaching a point in an exit to the pandemic that I figured we would not have reached until the end of this summer. That’s approaching(!) an exit. But there are many encouraging signs: Three approved vaccines in the US, four in Canada and the EU, twelve different vaccines throughout the world. Export and travel agreements and restrictions minimizing rampant spread. Voluntary mitigation efforts taking place in larger than anticipated numbers when official orders have expired – with some notable exceptions. All that and more is hastening a resolution to the pandemic, not an eradication of the virus and its disease, and a resolution is the best we can hope for against as cunning enemy an enemy as Orthocoronavirinae betacoronavirus-2.

But many people – and most Americans – aren’t good at reading beyond the headlines and that’s why the same papers also are running headlines, “Texas Rangers plan to allow full capacity of fans for 2021 MLB Opening Day,” “Gov. Wolf indicates Pa. restaurants and bars can celebrate St. Patrick’s Day,” and “Wyoming to lift statewide mask mandate next week.” (If you are wondering, Wyoming will join 16 other states without mask mandates.)

It is a great thing that the fully vaccinated and can re-socialize with other fully vaccinated and low risk individuals (fully vaccinated occurs 2 to 4 weeks after the final shot), and that nursing home residents can enjoy indoor visits with contact (hugs!), but there is more to the guidance beyond the headlines. In the nursing homes contact visits are allowed for residents who have completed their vaccination, precautions such as wearing masks and using hand sanitizer should continue, and outdoor visits are still preferred. When the CDC released new guidelines earlier this week that included, “Fully vaccinated people can visit with other fully vaccinated people indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing, visit with unvaccinated people from a single household who are at low risk for severe COVID-19 disease indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing, and refrain from quarantine and testing following a known exposure if asymptomatic,” the same guidance document recommends,“ it also noted that fully vaccinated people should continue to:

• Take precautions in public like wearing a well-fitted mask and physical distancing
• Wear masks, practice physical distancing, and adhere to other prevention measures when visiting with unvaccinated people who are at increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease or who have an unvaccinated household member who is at increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease
• Wear masks, maintain physical distance, and practice other prevention measures when visiting with unvaccinated people from multiple households
• Avoid medium- and large-sized in-person gatherings
• Get tested if experiencing COVID-19 symptoms
• Follow guidance issued by individual employers
• Follow CDC and health department travel requirements and recommendations

We do well to celebrate the approach of near normalcy but approach the celebration cautiously. Otherwise these will be the more representative headlines in the next few weeks: “Brazil hospitals buckle in absence of national virus plan,” “Africa’s new variants are causing growing concern,” and “1 in 5 in US lost someone in pandemic.” You don’t want to be one of the 1s or you may find out “Why the ‘grief pandemic’ might outlast the worst of COVID-19.”

______

Please Note: All headline quotes are actual headlines from Associated Press, Austin American Statesman, BBC, CBS Sports, CTV News, and the Pittsburgh Press from March 8 through March 11, 2021. CDC Guidance from “Interim Public Health Recommendations for Fully Vaccinated People,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, US Dept. of Health and Human Services, March 8, 2021. Links included in guidance direct to CDC web-site.