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Seasonal masks? Required boosters? On the latest episode of The Hill’s “Rising,” journalist and political commentator Kim Iversen broke down what the “new normal” might look like in 2022 and beyond.
Iversen pointed to a CBNC report that discusses what the new normal (which Iversen argued is not so normal) might look like.
The article predicted “COVID will likely lose its ‘pandemic’ status sometime in 2022 … the virus will likely become ‘endemic,’ eventually fading in severity and folding into the backdrop of regular, everyday life.”
While the CNBC article argued that this is happening thanks to COVID vaccines, Iversen said it’s because “more and more people have become infected” and the latest variant Omicron, is “proving to be very mild in its symptoms.”
CNBC said, “COVID will probably remain dangerous once the pandemic ends — much like the flu.”
Which prompted Iversen to ask, “So when it becomes like the flu, what’s life going to be like?”
She said CNBC contended this “new normal” will include wearing a mask on all public transit as well as indoors during “COVID season.”
“But of course this comes at a cost,” said Iversen. “Masking children and keeping them socially distanced during playtime certainly seems like it would come with psychological side-effects.”
CNBC reported that annual COVID boosters could become the norm, like annual flu shots.
Iversen pointed out fewer than 50% of people get flu shots every year.
“So I think another big question people will have is, ‘Will these be mandated?’”
Both New York University, the biggest university in the state, and New York’s Metropolitan Opera House are requiring everyone to have three doses of the COVID vaccine to attend or work in their facilities.
Iversen noted the World Health Organization has already announced young, healthy, vaccinated people are driving the spread of the newest COVID variant, which calls the need for mandated boosters into question.
“Will people just accept that possibly Omicron or a different or future variant has mutated to the point where it’s not much more than the common cold?” she asked. “Or will people demand triple and quadruple vaccinations paired with masking every single winter?
Watch the segment here:
