Last August, I wrote about the changes that COVID-19 had brought and would bring to our courts and systems of justice delivery. I figured that the efficiencies of remote filing, e-hearings and alternative dispute resolution methods forced by the pandemic might lead to some permanent changes, but I also, like many of us, assumed that many of the effects would be temporary; that we’d slowly default back to the old ways, perhaps for no other reason than there’s comfort in the tried, trusted and true. Now I’m pretty sure that things will never be the same again.

I was in Provincetown this past July when we had the first cluster of breakthrough cases among a highly vaccinated population. Within two weeks of the 4th, there had been 950 documented cases occurring among folks who had visited during the holiday. While that experience gave doctors and scientists important information and helped accelerate the push towards booster vaccinations, it also took a real bite out of the tourism economy for the rest of the summer.