The Beginnings of a Map of the New World

After two years of the pandemic, Kevin Drum is thinking about the new world.  Good for him!  He's got a list of "things we'd pretty much make permanent":

• Get vaxxed and then get boosted every year or so. (Details would depend on our evolving understanding of vaccine effectiveness.)
• Mask up at indoor public places. But not routinely at work. (Or should we bow to reality and give up on masks entirely?)
• Require proof of vaccination for large indoor events.
• Close schools only briefly and only on rare occasions when prevalence is high locally and 2-3% of students have tested positive.*

All good-natured kidding of one of my favorite bloggers aside, this is one of the first examples of post-pandemic thinking that I've read, not counting the endless numbers of definitions of "endemic."  He also includes what he doesn't think will be part of the new world.  It's a list that, in summary, suggests that we will not shut down our society as we know it.

One quibble:  He suggests schools will be closed "when prevalence is high locally and 2-3% of students have tested positive."  Yet routine testing is not on the list, in fact, one of the things he doesn't think will survive the end of the pandemic is "Routine testing requirements in general (instead rely more on proof of vaccination)."  How do we know when to shut a school - test only when it feels like there may be a lot of COVID around?

Anyway, here's the beginnings of a map of the new world.  Something to chew on; it's a start.