As the COVID-19 virus continues its quiet, relentless evolution, human institutions have evolved alongside it — this time producing four FDA-approved vaccines calibrated to the XFG variant, now entering the hands of the public. The question communities face is no longer simply whether to seek protection, but when, as medical professionals counsel that timing itself has become a form of medicine. In the Bay Area and beyond, health systems are weaving COVID and flu vaccination into a single, simplified act of seasonal care — a sign that what was once emergency has become, for better or worse, ro