"Endemic" Doesn't Mean we Stop Trying to Reduce Impact

Just saw an email from WBUR that said Baker trying to get local colleges to relax their masking rules is an effort to move toward an "endemic-like approach"... but here's the thing... something being endemic just means it's going to continue to be here, not that we shouldn't respond to it being here.

My having diabetes isn't going to change, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to do what I can to mitigate the impact it has on my overall health and wellbeing.

 
Admittedly, Accidents is now the fourth leading cause of death (having been overtaken by quite a bit by COVID-19 last year unless accidents doubled their usual count in the same year), but does anybody think we should get rid of seat belts, airbags, crumple zones... despite the fact that accidents will continue to kill thousands of people each year even with these precautions in place?

If we continue to mask-up (and take other precautions), that reduces the spread and contains the virus so that the endemic doesn't have the high costs we've already seen with COVID-19 and will continue to see until we take it seriously as a long-term impact to our routines. We may even find that if we maintain precautions, and they become routine, and become more responsive to increases in spread, we're able to reduce some of the precautions while still avoiding the huge waves we've seen repeated over the last 2 years.