“We’d all like it to be true. There were similar conjectures before the Delta variant appeared and knocked all our assumptions for a loop.” — Stephen Morse, PhD, of Columbia University Medical Center, on predictions that we’re all but done with the pandemic of the century.

“To see a movie in the theater was quite incredible.” — Lorenzo Menicanti, MD, of IRCCS Policlinico San Donato in Milan, talking about how life in Italy is almost back to normal compared with about 20 months ago when Italy was the epicenter of Europe’s COVID outbreak.

“We tried very hard to keep the message gentle.” — Bonnie Offit, MD, of the Pennsylvania American Academy of Pediatrics, discussing how medical groups in the state crafted newspaper ads to reach vaccine holdouts in rural communities.

“I believe we should be carefully expanding the pool for active surveillance, not narrowing it.” — Stacy Loeb, MD, of New York University, on the National Comprehensive Cancer Network’s removal of active surveillance’s “preferred” status in its low-risk prostate cancer guidelines.

“We need to move away from having a model for every episode, and every specialty.” — Elizabeth Fowler, director of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation, discussing the future of Medicare demonstration programs for physician reimbursement.