Could Fear of the New Covid Strain Bring Mask Mandates Back to Arizona?

The New Nightmare

You know the feeling: waking up from a night of bad dreams, and you can't shake the feeling that something is "off". But as the day wears on, it's easier to free your mind from the cobwebs and move on with your life.

For some of us, the nightmare of the global pandemic feels a little like this, as we've moved back out of the madness and into a strange new version of "normal".

Many of us are not the same. Having lost loved ones, our own health, jobs, and even careers. Missing out on important social markers like graduation ceremonies, weddings, funerals, and an endless list of things we couldn't do while we were social distancing.

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Only now are we truly emerging from the nightmare, while we accept that our world is quite a different place than the day we locked our doors in March 2020?

Are You Ready to Return to Pandemic Conditions?

Scientists and experts told us COVID was here to stay, that it would now be part of the "new normal".

As variants came and went, each one seemed a little less virulent than the last, convincing us it was more like the annual flu or cold outbreak than the global crisis it was when it first crashed into our lives.

Are Mask and Vaccine Mandates Coming Back to Arizona?

This new strain doesn't currently have the global impact of earlier Covid strains. CBSNews.com is reporting that it's only been identified in four countries: Isreal, Denmark, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Brace yourself, though. Scientists are warning that the US could be headed for a "dangerous fall" and indoor mask mandates and other public health measures will likely make a return in the U.S.

Will mask mandates and other measures return to Arizona? With a new governor, Democrat Katie Hobbs at the helm, and a laundry list of unknowns, only time will tell how much Arizonans will be required to do in light of the new strain - and how much we'll be willing to tolerate.