LOUISVILLE, Ky. ⁠— Americans, it would appear, are done with the coronavirus. Just like Justin Bieber, planking or the ice bucket challenge, the pandemic has overstayed its welcome. It needs to do the right thing and retreat back into the shadows so we can dive into the next fad and spit it out as well.

If you’ve watched any news this weekend, you’ve seen streams of people flocking to beaches. At Volusia County, Florida official says there are 47 miles of shore front in the county and every bit of it has crowds. Similar scenes are unfolding up and down our coasts, at our lakes and in bars and restaurants.

Every state in the nation is now open in some form or fashion. Here in Kentucky, things are getting back to normal as well. Open restaurants are one of the most visible indicators that people feel safe to emerge from their nests. Many of the once-shuttered eateries are packed this weekend (up to 33%) with varying degrees of social distancing.

The coronavirus has had a disproportionate impact on Americans on its march to kill nearly 100,000 people in about two months. Some people have lost loved ones. Others have lost their jobs and soon their houses. Many Americans have been lucky enough to ride out the storm from home - collecting paychecks, saving money by not doing anything, and working from the spare bedroom. And then there are others who have attempted to live their lives as if nothing is happening.

President Donald Trump has called himself a wartime president. And opinions about the response notwithstanding, he is correct. If we saw headlines that read “TWO THOUSAND DEAD AFTER ATTACK IN LEXINGTON” day after day, we would be outraged. An attack on our own soil every day!? We would rally together and protect our country. But that's not what’s happening here.

The pandemic is THE issue of our times. Between take-out orders and Netflix shows, we have found a lot of time to post on Facebook - shaming people who don’t feel the same way we do. “Wake up people!” they will say. “It’s a conspiracy to bring down the president!” “I saw a person at the store without a mask on!” Everyone has become an expert on infectious diseases, government health policies and the politics that come with this entire disaster.

What we do over these next few months could have a profound impact on our lives for generations. As states loosen their restrictions, how will we behave? Will we practice social distancing when we visit our friends and family? Will groups of people who don’t live together all go out to eat at the same table?

My wife and I have a big decision to make today. Will we hug her parents when they come over for a cookout? They live six miles away and we’ve seen them twice since this all got started. Both times, we stayed safe. No hugging, separate bathrooms, and we stayed outside for almost the entire visit. And if we don’t hug them today, when can we?

As much as we would like them — there just aren’t black and white answers on what to do next. How we deal with the coronavirus may come down to where we live. The rules for New York City need to be different than the ones in Kentucky. But with no travel restrictions, there is nothing stopping infected persons from the Big Apple from visiting the Commonwealth, potentially causing an outbreak.

We don’t want to come right out and say it, so I will. As a society, we appear to be willing to let one to two thousand people die every day so we can get back to some degree of normalcy. It is true that healthy people under the age of 60 have a very good chance of surviving the disease, if they show any symptoms at all. But are we individually comfortable with sacrificing our most vulnerable Americans so we can resume our way of life?

What happens next depends on us. How will you behave when no one is watching?

The United States may be over the coronavirus. But I promise you. The coronavirus has no plans of bowing out gracefully.

Cris Mullen is an Executive Producer with Spectrum News 1.