Back on March 23, 2020, I posted the music video for Bruce Springsteen’s “Waitin’ on a Sunny Day” in my class’s Google Classroom. During our first online meeting, I told my students that this pandemic would eventually end, masks would become a thing of the past, vaccines would protect us, and life would return to a normal.
A new normal, perhaps, but one in which we could once again gather in groups, hug one another, and smile.
I’ve listened to “Waitin’ on a Sunny Day” about a thousand times since that day, waiting for that sunny day to arrive. I’ve played it for my students. I’ve been tempted, more than once, to declare that our sunny day had arrived.
Back in June of 2021, before the delta variant diminished the effectiveness of vaccines and caused a spike in infection, Elysha and I went to Springsteen on Broadway, maskless. We ate in a restaurant in New York City, maskless. Other than presenting a vaccine card at the door, it felt as if life had returned to normal.
Thanks to the vaccines, we felt safe.
That lasted about six weeks, then delta came along and made things more challenging. Omicron followed, and currently we have omicron’s sub-variants in our midst.
Not ideal, but I think I’m ready to declare that the sunny day has finally arrived.
COVID-19 is still infecting large numbers of Americans, but thanks to the vaccines and therapeutics, the vast majority of people being hospitalized and dying are unvaccinated.
I don’t want anyone to die, but at least now, you have a means of reasonably determining your own fate.
Get vaccinated. Get boosted. Get double boosted if you’re over 50 and feel it prudent. Maybe even wear a mask in congregate settings if that makes you feel safe. Then move on.
We also have highly effective therapeutics now, so even if you’re infected, we can now treat the disease rather well.
In school, we now have the choice over whether to wear a mask or not. Most students and staff don’t wear them, but some do. Equally important, no one cares. No one is questioned or taunted or teased for wearing or not wearing one.
Infection rates remain low. Hospitalization and death rates remain low. Businesses are open. People are traveling. I’m even performing again in large theaters.
COVID-19 will likely always be with us, but thanks to science, it will no longer be the deadly plague that it once was. Long COVID remains a problem for many that still requires a solution, but with every tick of the clock, scientists get closer to developing better therapeutics, more effective vaccines, better treatments, and flying cars.
I think I’m ready to call it after more than two years:
A sunny day is finally here.
