When was the last time you pulled the elastic bands of a KN-95 mask behind your ears and felt its effect on your lungs as you took your next breath? Can’t think of it? Neither can I. There was a spike in COVID, flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in the U.S. in early January, causing major hospital chains in some states to reimpose mask mandates on everyone entering, but the increase has subsided. The latest national statistics for COVID from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have the disease down across the board. During the third week in March, emergency room visits for COVID were down 21 percent; hospitalizations down 14 percent; and deaths were off 16.7 percent.

But I had to look on Google to find those statistics, because the latest COVID stats aren’t in the news you see every day. It’s tempting to say that the disease isn’t a factor in our lives anymore, but with 1.2 million of us dead from COVID, the effects of the disease on families linger. Children are being born who will never know their grandparents because the disease took them. Widows and widowers miss spouses who died during the height of the pandemic. Companies have closed in every state in the Union because lockdowns shut them down permanently. The restaurant industry is still in recovery four years later.

When I moved to this small town in Northeast Pennsylvania two years ago, I put on a mask whenever I entered the local Walgreens and Key Foods supermarket. A few other fellow........

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