New York and California are dropping mask mandates. Virginia Democrats are rushing to jump on Gov. Youngkin’s bandwagon.

Public health “authorities” are making it official from Fauci on down.

“As we get out of the full-blown pandemic phase of COVID-19, which we are certainly heading out of, these decisions will increasingly be made on a local level rather than centrally decided or mandated. There will also be more people making their own decisions on how they want to deal with the virus,” Fauci said in a Financial Times interview published Tuesday.

Like everything about this farce, the wording is carefully coordinated.

Are we done? Well insofar as the Democrats have read the polls and they’ve seen the election impact. The preference cascade has kicked in and even people who used to be fairly fanatical have flipped on this in the past few weeks. While The View hags are still holding out for a permanent mask state, most people want to get back to normal.

Fauci is a survivor. The pandemic made him more famous and powerful than ever, but in the end the folks in the administrative state know when their hour has come and gone. And they know that if they pick their timing correctly, they can make a comeback.

No, we’re not going to be living in a permanent COVID state. I predicted that back when many people thought that was likely. But precedents have been set and they won’t be dismantled. Packing up the bags now is meant to help ensure that the precedent abides.