A little more than two years after COVID-19 first entered our lives, most Americans are eager to get back to normal or at least normal-ish.

As of today, 77.2% of Americans have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 66.1% are fully vaccinated, according to the Bloomberg News global vaccine tracker . Children as young as 5 are now eligible for vaccines , and most have returned to in-person schooling. (Kids under 5 may have authorized vaccines as soon as next week .) In May, employment rose by 390,000 jobs and the unemployment rate remained steady at 3.6%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Still, to declare COVID is over, as many Americans are eager to do, wouldnt be accurate: Cases of COVID-19 are on the rise yet again though thanks to vaccines, the prevalence of testing and the use of antiviral drugs, there hasnt been an uptick in hospitalizations and deaths as in previous surges.

But, most importantly, we cant forget about the various groups of Americans who cant get back to normal quite yet as much as they would love to do so.

For the immunocompromised, COVID remains a major threat. For those with long COVID , working through brain fog and other long-haul symptoms is an uphill battle. For the doctors and epidemiologists working with the public, COVID has to remain top of mind: Its their job to treat those with the virus and encourage the public to keep infections down through masking and other precautions. For those who lost someone to COVID , getting back to normal seems impossible when normal always included their loved ones.

Below, we spoke to a handful of people from each of these groups about what living with the ongoing effects of COVID looks like for them right now, and how they feel about the general rush to move beyond COVID.

Responses have been edited lightly for clarity and length.

The People Who Lost Someone To COVID

More than 1 million people have now died of COVID in the U.S. since the pandemics start, according to data released by Johns Hopkins University in May. Pamela Addison lost her husband Martin to COVID in April 2020. At the time, the New Jersey couples children were 2 years old and 5 months old. Today, Addison is the founder of Young Widows and Widowers of COVID-19 .