Topical may imply temporary, which may have struck a chord with you, but this brings a genuine curiosity to the burning question, what are the conditions if any for returning to normal? I chuckle as I write this as living in western Canada, we just recently got the public place mask mandate removed so it's back to "normal" for some people even more, except we are dealing with record high inflation across the board (lumber too) -- c'est la vie...
Like, there have been mini-pandemics in the past (Spanish Flu is one I read a bit about), how do we "win" against it instead of just "minimize damage"? Herd immunity? Given headlines like OP, it makes one pause to think.