--- title: What It Feels Like Everyone Is Acting Like COVID-19 Is Over description: With the end of the federal mask mandate and many people ready to return to "normal," vulnerable people are having to make even more difficult decisions to protect themselves from COVID-19. canonical: https://time.com/6170489/covid-19-pandemic-not-over-feelings/ author: Aubrey Hirsch article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-04-26T12:56:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:38:27.577Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Why It's Not Time to Celebrate the End of COVID-19 og:description: Many Americans are acting like the pandemic is over. Here's what it feels like when you're not og:url: https://time.com/6170489/covid-19-pandemic-not-over-feelings/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt170823cc99979798/698a313d09208f51f5419178/IsCovidOverHeader.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: IsCovidOverHeader og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why It's Not Time to Celebrate the End of COVID-19 twitter:description: Many Americans are acting like the pandemic is over. Here's what it feels like when you're not twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt170823cc99979798/698a313d09208f51f5419178/IsCovidOverHeader.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Many Americans Are Celebrating the End of COVID-19\. Here's What It Feels Like When You're Not > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=347ddebf-1819-485d-b8a8-4d91565d871a&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: The Difference Between a Covid Spike and a Surge [Watch (HLS stream): The Difference Between a Covid Spike and a Surge](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/j83pb4lv.m3u8) (2:25)  _Published 2022-04-05. With the end of the federal mask mandate and many people ready to return to "normal," vulnerable people are having to make even more difficult decisions to protect themselves from COVID-19._ by [Aubrey Hirsch](https://time.com/author/aubrey-hirsch/) ## Aubrey Hirsch Apr 26, 2022 12:56 PM UTC  Illustration by Aubrey Hirsch for TIME by [Aubrey Hirsch](https://time.com/author/aubrey-hirsch/) ## Aubrey Hirsch Apr 26, 2022 12:56 PM UTC People across the United States are ditching their masks, resuming their lives, and celebrating the end of COVID-19\. But for millions of Americans, [the pandemic is far from over](https://time.com/6165812/covid-case-count-united-states/). An estimated 40% of U.S. adults have at least two conditions that put them at increased risk for severe COVID-19, and [parents of young children are still waiting for a vaccine](https://time.com/6170315/omicron-covid-19-risks-kids-under-5/). Now that so many people are [moving on from the pandemic](https://time.com/6147080/moving-on-from-covid-19/), these vulnerable populations face even bigger challenges. With vaccines and masks no longer required in most public spaces, including [public transportation and airplanes](https://time.com/6168383/which-airlines-require-masks/), they will have to make difficult sacrifices to protect their health. And others will have no choice but to put themselves at risk.          --- ### More from TIME --- ## Transcript Spike, surge and uptick are used fairly interchangeably. I think many people in healthcare would view a surge as something that has the potential to overwhelm the healthcare system or threaten the capacity of hospitals in a given area. Whereas an uptick, or an increase, or spike in cases is usually used a little bit more casually just to suggest that case counts are rising. The ways that the U.S. has been predicting when a spike is coming, one of them is just looking to other parts of the world. Europe and particularly the U.K., has been a good predictor for the U.S. throughout the pandemic, they started to see Delta cases and Omicron cases rising a few weeks before we did. So, looking at what's going on in other countries is very valuable, as is looking at metrics like testing. If more cases are being reported and if a higher percentage of tests are coming back positive, those are both indications that there's more virus spreading in the community. Scientists and researchers all over the world are monitoring COVID, of course. Particularly looking for new variants as the virus continues to evolve. And a lot of those efforts are coordinated through the World Health Organization. But also, independent labs are scientists who are sequencing COVID samples to look for new variants, will often sound the alarm for the rest of the world when they start to notice either the viruses evolving or that a certain variant is spreading more rapidly in certain area. For example, before the Omicron surge, that news came out of South Africa originally and that kind of let the rest of the world know that they needed to be aware this variant was coming. During a spike in cases, I think we can keep doing the things that health experts have really been recommending for the last couple years. A lot of vaccine and mask mandates have rolled back recently but that doesn't mean that masking and vaccination are not still effective or still necessary in certain situations. So if case levels are rising, or very high in your area, you might want to wear protective masks like a N95. When you go out into indoor areas in public, you might want to limit the time that you spend in public indoor areas. You should stay up to date on booster shots as they're recommended for different demographics. And you can take advantage of that home tests to test yourself before you gather with others to make sure that you're not unknowingly infected with the virus. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6170489/covid-19-pandemic-not-over-feelings/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6170489/covid-19-pandemic-not-over-feelings/"},"headline":"Many Americans Are Celebrating the End of COVID-19. 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