The rollout of the vaccines that will allegedly protect us from the novel coronavirus is underway, albeit in a painfully slow fashion due to administrative incompetence and a lack of foresight. But we’re starting to get there. It may take until late spring or summer, but we should (in theory) hit some level of herd immunity, assuming Dr. Fauci stops pushing the goalposts back further and further. So when that happens, life goes back to “normal,” right? In fact, many of us have been pushing for a return to some sense of normality while the vaccines are being distributed rather than waiting for some magical line in the sand somewhere down the road. But not everyone believes that’s going to happen even with all of the progress we’re seeing. And according to a new survey taken by HealthCare Insider, some don’t believe that it’s ever going to happen.

Pandemic-shocked Americans are divided over when life might return to normal.

Asked when they see life returning to as it was before the emergence of COVID-19, the greatest number of Americans, 21%, pointed to summer 2021.

But a total of 49% selected either fall 2021 (18%), winter 2021 (11%), or 2022 or later (20%).

The rather simple question they asked was, “When do you see life returning to normal?” Here’s how the numbers break down:

• 11% said Spring of 2021
• 21% said Summer of 2021
• 18% said Fall of 2021
• 11% said Winter of 2021 or later
• 7% said Never

That’s a pretty pessimistic outlook if you ask me. I would wager that the eleven percent who expect to see normalcy this spring are probably already champing at the bit and ready to dump all of the facemasks and other social distancing garbage right now, but that wasn’t offered as an option in the survey. I would also guess that summer of this year received the largest response because that’s what people are regularly being told by the talking heads on cable news.

Another question put to respondents was what activity they are most looking forward to when this nightmare comes to an end. Unsurprisingly, at least to me, the top response, coming in at 26%, was not wearing a mask. That answer beat the other choices by a fairly wide margin, including family gatherings, travel, hugging loved ones, dining indoors, and shopping in person. As to when people think they’ll actually be able to do those things, summer was once again the number one answer.

The major problem we’re facing (above and beyond dying of COVID, anyway) is that we’re not fixed on a target that’s being set by “following the science” as our media betters are always saying. The “end” of the pandemic is being defined and determined by politicians, all of whom have their own motives. Some of them are simply so terrified of being proven wrong in hindsight that they are going to want to keep issuing all of these social distancing and facemask orders until long after most of the country has immunity. Others appear to be enjoying their newfound autocratic powers a bit too much to simply give them up.

Either way, most of the dates being discussed are simply too far away. A large number of people, possibly a majority are already sick and tired of this garbage and are ready to get back to normal right now. I’ve said this dozens of times now and I’ll repeat it yet again. This is not normal. This is never going to be normal. Once most of the seriously vulnerable people (seniors and those with underlying health issues) have been vaccinated these mandates need to end. The greatest risk from the virus is the possibility of overwhelming our ICU capacity in the larger population centers. The vast majority of younger, healthy people who contract COVID are never going to need to be hospitalized. And only a minuscule percentage of them will die, probably less than died of the flu last year.

It’s time for the governments of all the states and large cities to stop being cowards and/or tyrants and get their act together to distribute the vaccines broadly and efficiently. And then the executive orders need to be repealed. All of them. If we give these weasels the opportunity to turn such mandates into “the new normal” you know in your heart that they will try to take it. And that can’t be allowed to happen. We are a free people who are constitutionally assured of those freedoms. The virus can not be used as an excuse to erode or remove them.