The official narrative has shifted from "we can beat the coronavirus" to "we can coexist with it but only if you follow our shifting instructions very carefully." The pandemic has become endemic, going from something we can beat to "another virus that we'll have to live with." As far back as February, an article in Nature asked if we could ever be "coronavirus-free… [by maintaining] heavy restrictions… could the world hope to rid itself of the virus?"

Probably not. The good news from a San Francisco hospital coronavirus cluster is that the vaccinated don't get very sick anymore. The bad news is that they can test positive. "At least 233 staff members at two major San Francisco hospitals, most of them fully vaccinated, tested positive for the coronavirus this month, and most, according to a hospital official, involved the highly contagious Delta variant." However, few were seriously stricken.

Without vaccinations, Dr. Day said, the hospitalization rate would be much worse.

"We're concerned right now that we're on the rise of a surge here in San Francisco and the Bay Area," Dr. Day said. "But what we're seeing is very much what the data from the vaccines showed us: You can still get Covid, potentially. But if you do get it, it's not severe at all."…

Staff members at both hospitals have continued to wear personal protective equipment, Dr. Day said. But the number of staff infections reported in July is about as many as during the peak of the winter surge.