So I got my second bivalent COVID booster yesterday, and today WHO announces that COVID is no longer a public health emergency of international concern (basically because it’s now an established and ongoing health issue like the flu). I’m sure this is so reassuring to everyone with Long COVID and the immunocompromised who still have to worry about catching it.

I’m fine, by the way—my arm is sore and I’m a little hot and achy, but that was my reaction to all of my previous boosters so this is expected. And people are still wearing masks even in this reddest of red counties in Texas so there is still clearly concern about catching it. At least the pandemic made mask wearing normal so people … well, I was going to say that they don’t catch flak about their masks but I’m sure that in some parts of the good old US of A they still get called names for wanting to protect themselves.

I freely admit I stopped wearing masks back in November when we went to Arkansas to visit my aunt. We traveled from Texas to Arkansas, had dinner in multiple restaurants and went out to a bunch of stores, and we never caught it (or if we did the RATs didn’t pick it up). But I’m not running the same kind of risk that someone who is immunocompromised or elderly is, and if I go on a plane or to the doctor’s office I still wear a mask. And if someone does ask me to put on a mask I always have one in my purse and will respect their wishes.

Long story short, I feel better than I got my booster, but I’m not sure that the WHO’s move was the best one.