Commentary The developments of late regarding COVID cases and vaccination rates as the country begins to reopen have been very encouraging and should buttress people’s optimism after the long and gruelling year the pandemic has put us through. A rather depressing feature of the pandemic, however, has been that whenever a moment arrives that could provide genuine reason for optimism, politicians and their rigid health advisers without fail trample all over it, the underlying message being that panic should be the default until further notice. This gives the disturbing impression that those in positions of authority never want pandemic restrictions to end. The initial panic early last year was understandable given that so much was unknown about the virus, but the approach has since descended into a myopic obsession with eradicating COVID that has 1) proved to be woefully unrealistic and 2) harmful to the broader society. Take the example …