Biden Says the Pandemic Is Over. But at Least 400 People Are Dying Daily.

The pandemic, she stated in an interview, appears like “a hell that I’m by no means going to get out of.” Her husband has a compromised immune system, she stated, and she or he remains to be carrying masks.

“President Biden stated, ‘Nobody’s carrying masks,’ and maybe that’s true,” she stated. “However is it sensible?”

Mr. Goodman, who labored as a music and humanities reporter for Newsday earlier than he turned to educating, obtained sick shortly after he and his spouse, Debbie, had returned from a cruise alongside the Rhine. He stated he had no concept how they contracted Covid-19 — it may have been on the aircraft, the place few individuals have been carrying masks, or within the airport, or on the ship, the place somebody they ate with had a cough.

He stated he doesn’t remorse the journey; his spouse, who additionally had a lung dysfunction, consulted together with her pulmonologist, who stated it was wonderful for her to go. He’s glad, he stated, that that they had that point collectively. He stated he was attempting not to concentrate to statistics.

“How many individuals are nonetheless dying a day — is it 400 individuals a day?” he requested. “It’s not over. It could really feel over. In all probability if it weren’t for my state of affairs, I’d really feel that it was over, too, however I’m in a state of affairs the place it doesn’t matter whether or not different individuals assume it’s over. It’s not over for me.”

Others say their lives are endlessly modified.

“For us, there isn’t a regular that we will return to,” stated Mr. HsuBorger, seated in a wheelchair. He had simply led a bunch of sufferers with myalgic encephalomyelitis, a posh dysfunction often known as persistent fatigue syndrome, in a protest outdoors the White Home. Many have lengthy Covid. Their T-shirts declared: “Nonetheless Sick. Nonetheless Combating.”

Sharon Otterman and Michael D. Shear contributed reporting.