At least here in the USA, the Vaccines for covid or whatever one refers to them as, are widely available to anyone that wants them and the uptake is around 40%, probably going to top out in the 50% range or so.
In addition probably at least 10% of the population is confirmed to have had covid and survived and probably at least another 10% had it, but had very mild symptoms. So one way or another it seems we are getting a pretty good handle on it and even if it's still around at a low level, it's very manageable from a healthcare standpoint.
Other places like Australia are not quite so lucky, where they had a stick your head in the sand and let's all hide in our houses and not let anyone in, approach along with, vaccines... well maybe we'll buy some eventually. Except they keep letting folks in the country that then spread it just enough to make whole cities miserable (like Sydney when they got 50 to 100 cases last week from a flight crew, they freaked out), and people still can't get the vaccines they want and almost nobody has immunity, so there appears to be no end in sight for the misery.
The masks business was pure pandering and ignoring real science for the sake of making the sheeple feel that their holy garment of submission to the Covidian religion would protect them.
However what will have good effects long term, is the change in attitude towards public hygiene in general.
You see folks a lot more cautious about getting right in somebody's face and everybody now likes to keep a bit of personal distance.
Also in public most things like bathrooms have gone "Contact free" where you can open the door with your foot and all the flushing / turning on the taps and such is all automatic.
People also now are a bit more conscious about washing their hands, changing their clothes and shoes after being in crowds and many other such things that those of us who lived in countries where disease was rampant learned as second nature to protect ourselves, are now becoming widespread.
Things like employers now not being able to ask sick people to come in to work and people that wake up feeling ill or feverish are able to call in sick without fear of reprisals are a huge help. People are no longer stigmatized for wanting to stay home and away from others if they feel sick, it's no longer "just tough it out" but considered "responsible" to rest and isolate till you feel better, again stuff that used to be common sense for those of us who lived around disease.
Long term the change in habits may actually make the yearly cold and flu season less difficult for many.
People in western society forgot all about the steps to take in order to stay healthy amid disease because they thought modern medicine made them invincible to everything, now they are realizing that perhaps nature should be respected a bit more and simple basic precautions taken.
