November 8, 2021– “[These regulations] get at the idea that there is the need for social and economic life,” Wafaa El-Sadr, MD, MPH, the chair of global health at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health in New York City, tells Verywell. “It’s impossible to achieve a risk-free situation. Life is full of risks. The goal should always be to minimize [COVID] risk, not to aim for removing all risk because that’s impossible unless you don’t interact with anyone.”