‘Get used to it’: Outbreaks give taste of living with virus

The U.S. is getting a first glimpse of what it’s like to experience COVID-19 outbreaks during this new phase of living with the virus, and the roster of the newly infected is studded with stars.

Cabinet members, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Broadway actors and the governors of New Jersey and Connecticut have all tested positive. Outbreaks at Georgetown University and Johns Hopkins University are bringing back mask requirements to those campuses as officials seek out quarantine space.

The outbreaks in the Northeast may — or may not — signal what’s to come, experts say. Case counts are no longer reliable because official testing and reporting has been scaled back and more Americans are testing at home.

Across the nation, mask-wearing is at its lowest level since April 2020, said Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. For every 100 infections, only seven are recorded in official tallies, according to his modeling group’s latest estimate. Mokdad expects the high level of U.S. immunity built up from previous infections and vaccinations will protect the nation from a large surge.