President Joe Biden’s declaration that “the pandemic is over” has raised eyebrows and uproar from some experts who believe such messages could be premature and counterproductive.   

  But for many Americans who have long since returned to pre-COVID 19 activities and are now being forced back into the office, the observation may ring true.   

  The problem is that the sense of “back to normal” can vary from person to person, depending on the person’s circumstances and what criteria they use to judge that the pandemic is over.  The Conversation asked three scholars of different parts of American society affected by the pandemic – public health, education and the economy – to rate how “up” the pandemic is in their world.  This is what they said:   

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  Lisa Miller, assistant professor of epidemiology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus   

  President Biden answered the question of whether the pandemic is over with a resounding yes, but this is not a black and white issue.   

  It’s true that, thanks to widespread vaccine and infection immunity, the US is in a very different place than it was a year ago.  But as an epidemiologist, I think the continued occurrence of between 350 and 400 deaths in the US every day and hundreds of deaths a week in other countries around the world is still a pandemic.   

  I understand the need that Biden faces as a public figure to try to succinctly state where the country is and provide some hope and reassurance, but public health experts are still in a situation where no one can predict how it will mutate and the virus evolves.  These mutations may make the virus less dangerous, but it’s also possible that the next variant will be more harmful.   

  At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what you call the current situation – COVID-19 is still a significant, ongoing risk to the world.  Pandemic or not, it is important that we continue to invest in the development of improved vaccines and strengthen the preparedness of the medical and public health systems.  As COVID-19 continues, the danger is that decision-makers will lose sight of these important goals.   

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  William Hauk, associate professor of economics at the University of South Carolina   

  As an economic researcher, I can speak to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy and its lingering effects.   

  And the good news is that the worst impact of the pandemic on the economy ended some time ago.  After jumping to a postwar high of 14.7% in April 2020 as the ravages of the pandemic took their toll, the unemployment rate was at 4% or below for all of 2022. Specifically, in the August jobs report, the total number of US employed workers has surpassed the pre-pandemic high for the first time.   

  While the labor market has largely recovered, there are still economic ripples from the pandemic that the US will feel for some time.   

  Supply chain difficulties remain in some key areas, such as computer chips.  While we might have expected stronger recoveries in this area, geopolitical issues such as the war in Ukraine continue to cause problems.  As a result, a full recovery may not take place for a while and may hamper efforts to combat higher inflation.   

  Finally, many Americans may be reevaluating work-life balance as a result of the pandemic.  Total workforce numbers suggest the “Great Resignation” may be more of a job reshuffling.  However, the rise of “quiet attrition”—the phenomenon of workers limiting their productivity and not going “above and beyond”—may lead many to conclude that workers are not as intrinsically motivated by their work as they once were. the COVID-19.   

  So while the “pandemic” phase of COVID-19 may be over for the economy, the rise of a new normal can be seen as the beginning of an “endemic” effect.  That is, we are no longer in a state of emergency, but the “normal” we return to may differ in many ways from the pre-COVID world.   

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  Wayne Au, professor of education, University of Washington, Bothell   

  While it is true that public schools may have largely returned to “normal” operations in terms of no mandatory coverage, a return to the use of high-stakes tests to measure teaching and learning, and attendance policies, schools are not with a pandemic.   

  The pandemic-induced traumas that many homeschoolers have faced – through the death of friends and family, the impact of long-term COVID, the isolation and stress caused by parental job insecurity and unequal access to health care – they live inside them as they attend classes today.   

  Many students have to relearn how to be with each other personally and in social and academic settings.  Additionally, students in low-income families still struggle to overcome the effects of unequal access to resources and technology at home during distance education.   

  Gaps in educational outcomes right now are the same as they were before the pandemic and appear at the intersection of race, class, and immigration.  In the same way that the pandemic has generally exacerbated socio-economic inequalities, it has also widened already existing educational inequalities.   

  In addition, pandemic-related pressures on teachers and districts have led to staff shortages across the country, creating increased instability for learning in schools and classrooms.   

  These problems have been exacerbated by the pandemic and may affect students – especially from lower-income backgrounds – for years to come.   

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