Why are so many people insistent that there's a group that wants to keep masks/restrictions "forever"? I am so genuinely perplexed by this. And yet it gets trotted out again and again. There must be a TV pundit pushing this idea to stoke resentment. I guess it's just a way to mock and undermine other people, but it prevents any good faith discussion.
The thing I'm waiting for is less community spread. Nothing has changed where I am -- we still have tons of cases every day. So for my unvaccinated kids or a family member who can't vaccinate, the situation is really exactly where it was before, except now more people will be unmasked. Once we get the numbers down to single digits or similar, we can relax.
It's also clearly disingenuous to say that some parents are afraid of their kids having sniffles. I think some would rather wait a bit so we can avoid any long-haul symptoms down the road (which some children do experience). I mean, this is the kind of thing that makes it impossible to have good faith conversations about policy. I wish people could just try to question their assumptions, and try to see where others are coming from, even briefly. What a difference that would make.