Shannon Cummings, 53, has been trying to move forward after her husband, Larry, a college professor, died of Covid-19 in March 2020.
She flew from her home in Michigan to Southern California to attend a Harry Styles concert with relatives and friends. Twice a week she meets with her group therapy classes. She started eating lunch in public again, a step that took her years.
“We’ve lost over a million people to the pandemic,” she said. “It’s not an honor for any of them not to live my life.”
Yet she’s still wrestling with the milestone that will mark the nation on Thursday: some kind of official end to the pandemic, as the Biden administration will allow the three-year-old coronavirus public health emergency — and a separate declaration of a national emergency – expired.
“I feel like some people never really embraced that there was an emergency going on,” Ms Cummings said. “It’s really hurtful to those of us who have actually lost because of this.”
The end of the public health emergency in the United States comes at a time when vaccines are effective and widely available, testing is easily accessible, and treatments have vastly improved since the start of the pandemic.
More than 1.1 million Americans have died from Covid, and the death rate has declined significantly in recent months. In 2020 and 2021, it was the third most common cause of death; by this point in 2023, preliminary data shows, it has dropped to seventh.
But the Biden administration’s move, which takes effect Thursday, has sparked mixed feelings among many Americans who have lost relatives and friends to the pandemic.
For some people, it has raised concerns that the pandemic is being politicized again.
“What’s triggering is when people say, ‘Now we know we didn’t have to shut things down or wear masks,'” said Kori Lusignan, a Florida resident whose father, Roger Andreoli, died of Covid in 2020. an intimate, close-up view of suffering. And it led me to believe that we weren’t making hasty or unimportant decisions. Those were choices we had to make and there were good reasons for that.”
For others, it is a welcome acknowledgment from Mr Biden that the country is in a different place than before.
“I don’t think it’s premature, and I have no objection to him doing this,” said Vincent Tunstall, who lives in Chicago and lost his brother Marvin to the virus in November 2020.
Mr Tunstall said he was still more cautious about Covid than many people, wearing a mask when in indoor public areas and on his daily train commute. Any mention of Covid reminds him of his brother, a lingering pain known only to those who have lost people in the pandemic.
“Unfortunately, when I think about Covid and the pandemic, thoughts of him are intertwined with both,” he said.
Pamela Addison, a Covid widow, mother of two and survivor advocate, said the government’s decision to let the emergency end was a reminder that the federal government could do more for children who have lost parents and caregivers .
“The kids are constantly overlooked,” she said. “We don’t want to talk about them. It’s like we don’t want to talk about the fact that they exist.”
The end of the emergency declaration could lead to new costs for coronavirus testing, as private insurers will no longer be required to cover up to eight home tests per month after Thursday.
Laura Jackson, who lost her husband Charlie to the coronavirus, questioned the necessity of the move. Leaving Americans with out-of-pocket costs related to the virus is tantamount to “throwing this back” to the public, she said, while leaving the country unprepared for a future pandemic.
“There is so much more work that needs to be done,” she said, noting that there were still questions about the origin of the virus in China. “We shouldn’t be shutting down resources.”
For Ms. Jackson, who lives in Charlotte, NC, Thursday’s end of the pandemic’s classification as a public health emergency nearly coincides with her husband’s anniversary of May 17, 2020. Both days, she said, have filled her with fear.
She still regularly encounters people who deny that Covid is real, or suggest that her husband died due to his pre-existing conditions, a comment that stings.
“I never felt like we recognized those we lost,” Ms. Jackson said. “I feel like we’ve always been in a rush to get rid of it. But it’s still so real.”