Publicly funded project seeks to help researchers find COVID-19 'new normal'

But at the same time, ER visits are down along with COVID-19 cases reported to the state; That’s because more people are testing at home.

WRAL News spoke with Doctor David Wohl, an infectious disease expert with UNC Health, asking if we have reached the “new normal” with COVID-19 – learning to live with the virus.

"We are not having the numbers we saw last year with the Omicron and we are not having a run on ventilators We are not having our ER’s overflowing,” said Wohl. “So we are getting infected, some of us getting sick, but not getting super sick as we were.”

Our built-up immunity is a big factor in that, Wohl said; Unfortunately, that does not mean we are in the clear.

“The thing we worry about most is new variants. Variants that can continue to evolve,” said Wohl.

Wohl said he would also like to see even better advancements in vaccines.

So, where do we go from here? Wohl is working to find out.

“These are questions we are going to answer from North Carolinians signing up for the vision study,” said Wohl.

The Vision Study is a publicly funded project. People fill out online surveys.

Researchers use their answers to learn things like - how long our vaccines protect us, why some people do not catch COVID-19 again and who gets long COVID-19.

“Within the next few months, we are going to already learn a tremendous amount,” said Wohl.

COVID programs wind down as federal funding runs out, local health departments could feel strain

Wohl said it's important we keep learning about this virus.

“The only constant is change – things are always changing,” said Wohl.

Hundreds of people have already signed up to take part.