I find it fascinating that when it comes to Covid-19, we’ve swung from being afraid to step outside to wild abandon. Not a mask to be seen anywhere. All rules dropped. But it hasn’t gone away.
People are still catching Covid and long Covid is real, People are also still being admitted to hospital and still dying in not totally insignificant numbers. It’s probably fine, these people were sick already, but globally cases are also significant (see North Korea).
It’s conceivable that a nasty variant could still emerge (I was talking with a Prof. of virology at Cambridge a month or two ago and she said that while new variants are thought to be ever weaker, that’s a theory with no proof.
I think we collectively decided that the pandemic responses (like lockdowns, closed schools, not seeing family for ages, social distancing, etc.) and their effects (rampant isolation, depression, anxiety, financial ruin, governmental mistrust, broken societies, etc.) were way worse than a hard flu nobody was immune to (sorry grandma).
We can handle what nature throws at us, but it seems we almost killed ourselves by ignoring the side-effects of our own responses.