Get used to it: COVID is a part of the holidays. Here's how to think about risks now

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/11/21/ [login to see] /covid-thanksgiving-holidays-reduce-risk-wear-mask-on-plane
Remember early pandemic Thanksgivings?

Scouring store shelves for rapid tests. Turkey dinners in the backyard. Panic over a stray cough.

Hard to believe we are in our fourth holiday season with COVID-19 potentially crashing the party — always an unwelcome guest.

"It's going to be a persistent threat," says Justin Lessler, an epidemiologist at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. "I suspect that next year will look just like this year and the year after that with some variation, just like we see with flu."

And by all accounts, most Americans are essentially back to business as usual. One recent poll found at least two-thirds of the public are not worried about getting COVID over the holidays or spreading it to people who are close to them. Meanwhile, half said they plan to take at least one precaution over this fall and winter.