The vaccines are designed to make it so we don't have to live under COVID restrictions forever and ever and ever and ever... That was always the point. For the restrictions to end one day. That was the goal. Now it's happening.

In my country, Australia - we are experiencing an Omicron second wave, but the high numbers of positive cases are not leading to a corresponding overwhelming of the healthcare system. Why? Because of vaccination and also because Omicron is less deadly than Delta.

And yeah, mask mandates are gone except in public transport and in healthcare. Life is getting back to normal. It's wonderful.

Of course it makes sense to feel anxious right now because the media spent 2 years MAKING you anxious, training you to feel like a horrible person if you don't wear a mask, training you to feel like you're a literal murderer if you get COVID and possibly pass it on to someone else. Whether that feeling is always based in reality, we were all made to feel that way, and now we are learning to live again as before.

I personally am so ready for COVID to become like the flu.

I actually got sick last week and I was so sure it was COVID - I had all the symptoms despite multiple negative RAT tests. Then I went to get a PCR test and it was negative! So I guess that I was one of the lucky people to catch influenza in the middle of a COVID wave! XD Hilarious. But I felt more sick from that than most of my friends who have had COVID, felt. Funny.