Unfortunately Connecticut is in the middle of its fourth or fifth Covid surge.

The good citizens of Connecticut are sick of the pandemic. All of us want to go back to our pre-pandemic lives.

Well it is looks like business as usual includes Covid, and we’ll be masking as needed for the foreseeable future.

Dr. Ashish Ja, the new White house Covid Czar, Governor Ned Lamont and Matt Hoey, the First Selectman of my town are all suggesting we mask up when we’re in stores or crowded areas.

In Connecticut, case numbers are way up, as are hospitalizations. No one I know trusts the home tests. They frequently come in negative even if the PCR test is positive.

Meanwhile more than 75% of Americans diagnosed with long Covid weren’t sick enough to be hospitalized for their initial infection. (Source: The New York Times). Long Covid includes chronic symptoms such as fatigue, shortness of breath, coughing, joint pain, muscle pain and problems with focus and memory. It can look like other hard to diagnose diseases like Lyme and auto immune diseases like chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. All of these diseases can really mess with people’s ability to earn a living and enjoy their lives.

AND there is a lot of flu around here. Friends, family, Keith and I have all come down with some kind of nasty bug that looks like Covid, sounds like Covid but according to the home test isn’t Covid.

So what are we going to do?

The answer is simple. Put on our big persons’ pants and mask up. Get the booster if it’s available. Wash our hands.

It’s not the end of the world but it looks like masks will certainly be part of life in the 2020s.