“I cannot believe we are still going through this,” said Lisa Cotton, 56, who owns a shoeshine stand in downtown Minneapolis.

She is vaccinated and exhausted. Business has been slower than in years past but is picking up as offices reopen…

“I am over it,” said Soffia Wardy, 54, who runs a gift store in Aspen, Colo., and writes books about food.

“They sound the alarms so loudly about Omicron because they don’t know how bad it is or isn’t,” she said. “So what are we to do?”

Her answer: Host dozens of people this month at several Christmas parties.

“I just wish we had a crystal ball to tell us what happens now with Omicron and this pandemic, because it seems we go in circles,” she said.