[hehetrthrthrjn]

> even after COVID is long gone

COVID is very likely to become an endemic disease, so it probably won't be going away.

Of course the best way to deal with that is vaccination, but there are anti-vaxxers so masks will probably become more of a fixture. Not because of an overzealous adviser, but because of people's stupidity.

[ddingus]

What is the case for it not being endemic now?

[hehetrthrthrjn]

The fact that variants are already rife, all coronaviruses are globally endemic so far and the impossibility of the required global coordination of all countries to eradicate it.