PHOTO: DAVIDE BONALDO/SIPA USA/NEWSCOM
SCIENCE science.org 18 FEBRUARY 2022 • VOL 375 ISSUE 6582 703A
s surges of COVID-19 cases driven by
the highly infectious Omicron variant
recede, parts of the United States, Can-
ada, and Europe are moving swiftly
to lift constraints on a pandemic-
fatigued public. Sweden, Denmark,
and Norway have abolished nearly all
COVID-19–related restrictions in recent
weeks, and the United Kingdom announced
it would do the same this month, dropping
even the legal requirement that people quar-
antine after testing positive for SARS-CoV-2.
In the United States, despite persistently
high numbers of COVID-19–related deaths
and busy hospitals, 10 governors, many
known for being cautious in their pandemic
response, last week announced immediate
or impending ends to their states’ indoor or
school mask mandates.
Some of those moves came with asser-
tions that it’s time to “live with the disease”
and treat the coronavirus as endemic—a
stable, enduring figure in the panoply of
human pathogens, alongside cold viruses
and influenza. That suggestion troubles
many scientists, who warn it is eroding
governments’ commitment to tracking and
responding to the pandemic—which could
leave countries flying blind and unprepared
for any new variant.“Endemic delusion is probably what cap-
tures it the best,” says Kristian Andersen,
an infectious disease researcher at Scripps
Research who has been especially criti-
cal of recent moves by his home country
of Denmark, which include an announce-
ment that as of this month COVID-
would no longer be categorized as a “so-
cially critical disease” even though related
death and hospitalization rates were still
climbing there.
Still, many scientists acknowledge the
challenges of steering public restrictions
during the reign of the more infectious
but generally less severe Omicron variant,
when some of the metrics that previously
guided policy have become less informa-
tive. For example, how meaningful are
case counts as mild and asymptomatic in-
fections increase and unreported at-home
tests become ubiquitous? How much do in-
cidental findings of COVID-19 in patients
hospitalized for other conditions pollute
the official numbers?
“The challenge for each and every health
authority is to figure out, well, what should
we track?” says Michael Bang Petersen, a
political scientist at Aarhus University.
Denmark’s recent moves are a case in
point. Petersen, a pandemic adviser to the
Danish government, supports its decision
to lift measures such as limits on nightlifehours, caps on attendance at indoor public
events, and mandatory face masks or proof
of vaccination for indoor venues. He argues
the government could no longer justify the
economic, social, and constitutional trade-
offs of those restrictions amid promising
signs, such as numbers of intensive care
unit (ICU) patients that remain stable and
below the health system’s capacity.
Andersen, however, calls keeping hos-
pitals from overflowing “a pretty low bar.”
Bringing down overall cases, and thereby
reducing transmission, remains key, he
argues, to minimizing risks of Long Covid
and protecting the elderly and immuno-
compromised from infection.
In the United States, governors cited
various metrics to justify recent decisions
to lift or let expire indoor mask mandates.
California Governor Gavin Newsom noted
stable hospitalization rates and a 65% re-
duction in cases since Omicron’s peak in
announcing the state’s mandate would
end this week. But leaders also face politi-
cal and economic pressures. States’ moves
may be driven largely by the public’s impa-
tience with restrictions, says epidemiologist
Dustin Duncan of Columbia University.
“Even people who recognize the impor-
tance of masking, social distancing, all that
stuff, may be more amenable to take more
risk,” he says. “At the same time, to me, go-IN DEPTH
Like many locales recently, Barcelona, Spain, has lifted pandemic restrictions on indoor gatherings.By Kelly ServickCOVID-Scientists call ‘endemic’ message premature
As pandemic restrictions lift, virus tracking and preparation for next variant may suffer