Oh no, Jessica! Get well soon, and I hope you don't get long Covid. If it's any comfort, my entire family and most of my friends have had it at this point (despite being vaccinated, boosted, etc.,) and no one developed long Covid.

As far as this being an American thing, I just returned from traveling in Europe, and in the four countries we visited, people weren't wearing masks or social distancing. They were carrying on as usual and the cafes were crowded. So it's more of a worldwide response to resume living life as if Covid weren't around.