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some excerpts of interest:

“The challenge we have is there’s no clear roadmap to say where we’re at,” Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said of the pandemic’s trajectory. “We just have to accept the uncertainty.”  
....Yet the internal planning for the end stage of the crisis also amounts to an acknowledgment that the White House is more limited than ever in its ability to keep up the fight.  
There is little federal funding left to fuel its vaccination campaign after Congress refused to allocate more money at the end of last year, and even less hope a GOP-led House will entertain future requests. State leaders who were once enthusiastic partners have dropped their Covid precautions and shifted their attention to other matters.  
As for the broader population, officials said they recognize that much of America has moved on.  
In an interview, White House Covid response coordinator Ashish Jha said his team is focused on more urgent priorities like tamping down the latest surge in Covid cases and safeguarding vulnerable Americans from the virus.  
“There’s so much disinformation about these vaccines,” Jha said. “Unfortunately that disinformation is deadly, and we’re not just fighting a virus but fighting people who are actively trying to leave people vulnerable to the virus.”  
The rising caseloads have also added to the sense of urgency behind developing a long-term blueprint for a coronavirus response that can outlive the White House Covid team — and likely the Biden presidency.  
Yet despite that intensifying planning, health officials allowed that ending the public health emergency would only go so far toward closing this chapter of the pandemic. As the administration has been reminded several times before, the rest will be up to the virus.  
“People’s memories are short as to how bad things actually were, and that’s a testament to the miracle of science with these vaccines,” said Krutika Kuppalli, an infectious disease physician and chair of the Infectious Diseases Society of America’s global health committee. “We need to think about what coming out of the acute phase of the pandemic is going to look like, but obviously we’re not out of it when we have over 100,000 new infections a day.”
Isn't he relying on the Covid emergency declaration to justify student loan forgiveness? Not sure how he can simultaneously claim we aren't in a public health emergency anymore and we are still in a public health emergency so we need to forgive student loans.... >

They are extending it a minimum of 90 days, but it could be the last.
And yes, the student loan forbearance is contingent on the HEROES act and the emergency declaration - so student loans would resume this spring or summer depending on how it is rolled out. >

Half my office, including myself, was out with Covid last week. >

I finally caught it and the flu. I’m boosted from a bit ago but it fucking sucked. Not sure if it was COVID or the flu that fucked me. After testing positive for both the doctor just wished me the best of luck and continue to take OTC meds. Fever was ~103 and I haven’t had a fever that high since I was a kid. 
Half my team in the last two weeks has had it. People are dropping like flies.