On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks stated that we are “going to enter a phase where we’re not going to kill COVID the way we wish, but we’re going to learn to live with it, the way we live with the flu. And I think we’re sort of at that point.”

Brooks stated, “We’re not where we were a year ago. And, to me, the best thing the administration has done is buy millions of doses of [these] Pfizer and Merck treatment regimes. So, you get a positive test, you get five days and you take 30 pills, I think that’s the Pfizer one. And it has like an 85% of reducing — chance of reducing your hospitalization and death. So that suggests we’re going to enter a phase where we’re not going to kill COVID the way we wish, but we’re going to learn to live with it, the way we live with the flu. And I think we’re sort of at that point. And we’re going to — we’re — if you’re fully vaccinated and you’re under 50, your odds are quite good. It’s still the folks who need the continued care. And so I think we’re just going to be in a country with a lot of COVID around for a long time. But we have tools now to make it a lot safer.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett