Fauci, President Biden, every governor, every mayor, and every county executive who is still enforcing lockdown measures should say, “I will lift them when …”

It seems unconscionable that any lockdowns should stay in place after vaccine demand is met. That is, once everyone who wants a vaccine has one (and once it’s taken effect 10 days or 2 weeks after the jab), then people at risk are almost all people willing to bear that risk.

Another possible threshold is once R-0, the reproductive rate of the virus, is below 1 for a week or two. That means the virus is steadily dying out. This will happen in some places earlier than others, and those places should open up internally, even if they continue to limit travel.

Excess deaths is another measure. Pretty soon, the United States will see all weekly deaths, by all causes, be equal to the total deaths from that same week in 2019 and 2018. At that point, we’re no longer experiencing a deadly pandemic.

We cannot wait for COVID-19 to disappear.