For vaccinated Americans in their 70s and 80s, Covid remains more dangerous on average than many other everyday risks, including falls, choking, gunshot wounds or vehicle accidents…

“Vaccines turn Covid into a mild disease,” Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, wrote yesterday. But mild infections can “kill vulnerable people,” he explained.

For older people with a medical condition, the vaccines both sharply reduce the dangers of Covid and still leave Covid as a meaningful threat, one that arguably justifies a different approach to day-to-day life. Spending time indoors with an unmasked, untested grandchild or eating a meal inside a restaurant may not be worth the risk, at least until case counts have fallen to low levels.

For older people who are healthy, the risks may be more tolerable. Covid is probably not vastly more dangerous than other activities that people do without thinking — like driving a vehicle or climbing a flight of stairs — but it is not zero risk, either.