Thursday marks the official end of the national COVID-19 public health emergency.

Since the declaration of the public health emergency more than three years ago, there have been 1.1 million deaths in the U.S.

The emergency was extended more than a dozen times since it began in March of 2020. University of Michigan medical historian Howard Markel tells Bridge Michigan that we’ve entered “a whole new era, where we have this almost science fiction-like virus that changes its coat of arms every 4 to 6 months.”

People are still getting sick and dying of the virus, and free tests will be ending for some people, but most Americans feel they have moved on from the pandemic.