A growing number of nations in Europe, Africa and the Americas are pushing to transition to a post-pandemic near-normal status, taking steps to relax restrictions even as the coronavirus and its variants remain deaf to their cry to “take life back.” We take “near-normal” to mean a slide of the COVID-19 pandemic to a more manageable area-specific endemic infection that can be treated as easily as the seasonal flu (influenza or trancazo). Among the countries with high vaccination rates that are now easing such restrictions as masking and distancing in restaurants, clubs, theaters and similar cro…