For many, Covid is increasingly regarded like the common cold. A scratchy throat and canceled plans bring a bewildering new critique from friends: You shouldn’t have tested.

Jason Moyer was days away from a family road trip to visit his parents when his 10-year-old son woke up with a fever and cough.

. . .

“Six months ago, we would have tested for Covid,” Mr. Moyer, 41, of Ohio, said. This time they did not.

Instead, they checked to make sure the boy’s cough was improving and his fever was gone — and then set off for New Jersey, not bothering to tell the grandparents about the incident.

In the fifth summer of Covid, cases are surging, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported “high” or “very high” levels of the virus in wastewater in almost every state. The rate of hospitalizations with Covid is nearly twice what it was at this time last summer, and deaths — despite being down almost 75 percent from what they were at the worst of the pandemic — are still double what they were this spring.

MBFC
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