Lockdown seems to have been eons ago. Did the world stand still on its axis? At the time, children cheered for the extra two weeks off of school. Parents messaged their temples and struggled to figure out how they were going to survive. Workers were nervous as the threat of unemployment loomed over them. There was even a crazed mood in supermarkets. But fear of the pandemic is now but a distant memory.

There has been a shift from containing COVID and regulating cases to instead finding ways to get life back on track. Restaurants have long since opened, salons have welcomed back clients, and young people are gathering as if there were no virus at all. It is human nature to adjust to reality, which more or less explains the irresponsibility plaguing the country.

It, however, not excusable. COVID cases have soared–with deaths approaching 1000 per day in the United States. Clearly, people are dealing with the consequences of others’ carelessness. For example, an entire college campus is still unable to attend classes because of a party last week. Doctors and nurses are wearing four layers of masks as patients are dying in improvised intensive care units. Meanwhile, there are people protesting masks.

People are starting to travel, driving around with their friends, enjoying large parties, and wearing their masks below the nose. Perhaps they are trying to convince themselves that it is a fake pandemic. Perhaps, their thinking goes, there is no virus, no death toll rising, no people lying dead in hospital morgues or refrigerated trucks. But no matter how much we long for life to gain any semblance of normality, there is no excuse for irresponsible behavior.

There is still a pandemic going on. The virus is indifferent to your plans. It does not care that this is your senior year, for instance. It spreads without regard to anyone or anything other than the laws of science.

It is kind to wear a mask and stay home this winter. Will America care?