Brooks: We’ll Enter Phase Where We Live with COVID Like the Flu, ‘We’re Sort of at That Point’

On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks stated that we are “going to enter a phase where we’re not going to kill COVID the way we wish, but we’re going to learn to live with it, the way we live with the flu. And I think we’re sort of at that point.”

Brooks stated, “We’re not where we were a year ago. And, to me, the best thing the administration has done is buy millions of doses of [these] Pfizer and Merck treatment regimes. So, you get a positive test, you get five days and you take 30 pills, I think that’s the Pfizer one. And it has like an 85% of reducing — chance of reducing your hospitalization and death. So that suggests we’re going to enter a phase where we’re not going to kill COVID the way we wish, but we’re going to learn to live with it, the way we live with the flu. And I think we’re sort of at that point. And we’re going to — we’re — if you’re fully vaccinated and you’re under 50, your odds are quite good. It’s still the folks who need the continued care. And so I think we’re just going to be in a country with a lot of COVID around for a long time. But we have tools now to make it a lot safer.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett