Too many months of dealing with Covid has brought many people to the same conclusion: We can’t do anything about its place in our lives, so therefore it’s not worth worrying about anymore.

Personal experiences within this news room have reinforced the notion that we all should have learned years ago — it is highly contagious, and can be spread to people who may not be able to survive it easily.

Although we may be in a moment in time where masks are purely optional, this does not mean we are free from the clutches of the pandemic, or the consequences that can result from a lack of awareness and responsible actions. Although a large portion of our local population has been vaccinated and boosted against the virus, new variants seem to be particularly adept at bypassing these protections.

And while those who have been vaccinated may still fare better in their recovery from the virus, it does nothing to protect those who remain immunocompromised or at greater risk of death from catching any kind of communicable disease. It remains our important personal duty to avoid careless spread of this illness, which still lingers everywhere that people populate and travel.

The simplest thing we can all do is to be more aware of what our bodies are telling us. If you have any symptoms associated with a normal cold or flu, do not assume that Covid isn’t responsible. Tests are available for free through your insurance, so there is no reason to not take them (over multiple days, since you may not immediately test positive once infected), just to be sure. Once you are out in the community with symptoms, you risk becoming a super spreader — not just to strangers at the supermarket that you don’t know, but to your own friends, family and loved ones.

It is an awful feeling to know that you are the one responsible to get someone else sick, and it is a burden you do not have to carry if you take some of the most simple precautions. At the first sign of feeling off, take a test, wear your mask, and then test again in the coming days.

We understand the fatigue associated with living in this kind of environment. We all wish that this was simply over with, but the hard reality is, indeed, that this virus is with us for the foreseeable future. We cannot simply plug our ears and close our eyes and ignore it, else we risk more people being needlessly sickened and possibly killed.