I think it’s possible to hold two seemingly contradictory things to be true. It can be true that masks reduce respiratory infections and also that they can have unintended harms, especially in the very young and children with learning disabilities. Masks, after all, are a type of medical intervention, and nearly every intervention carries risks and benefits. Sound policies require constant reevaluation of these trade-offs.

In the same vein, it can be true both that covid-19 causes illness and harm, and also that its continued prioritization, to the exclusion of other issues, does, too. Another Urgency of Normal co-founder, internal medicine physician Lucy McBride, told me that many of her vaccinated and boosted patients are still extremely anxious despite their relatively low risk from covid-19. “I tell them that I’m more concerned about their hypertension, diabetes, depression and overall mental health. I’m concerned about them missing mammograms. I worry about their relationship with alcohol and the social isolation they’re experiencing.”

The impact of these other issues is harder to measure, because, as McBride said, “there’s no PCR test for despair.” But that doesn’t make other issues any less consequential to people’s overall well-being. On the societal level, a narrow-minded focus on infection control comes with the trade-off that opioid overdoses, childhood obesity and other public health crises will continue taking a back seat.