WASHINGTON — When will it all end?

That was the question posed to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top medical adviser to President Biden, during a Wednesday briefing by the White House pandemic response team. It is a question that Americans have been asking, with variation, for months: How much longer will we have to wear masks? When will the sound of a stranger’s cough no longer incite fear of death?

Most broadly of all, when will the pandemic state of emergency finally come to a close, to be replaced by something resembling a pre-pandemic normal?

The answer Fauci offered on Wednesday is unlikely to offer much comfort to the impatient or the