It’s been a long two years since March 2020 when the country shut down to prevent COVID-19 from spreading.

We remember the nightly cheers for New York City health care workers, the makeshift morgue trucks parked outside the nation’s hospitals and the rise of the variants, first identified by country names and then by Greek letters —gamma, delta and omicron.

Now, there’s a new phase. Cities are removing vaccine requirements and masks are becoming optional. Many call it a return to normal — except for some people, it isn’t.

Among them are those with compromised immune systems who say their concerns are marginalized.

Host Jane Clayson talks to Jeannina Smith, medical director of the Transplant Infectious Disease Program at UW Hospitals and Clinics, and Texas resident Hannah Lathen about the issue.

Click here for more from the Food and Drug Administration on Evusheld, a COVID-19 treatment for certain adults and children.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

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