Covid cases are skyrocketing again. States have no new plans.

State health officials are out of ideas.

They’ve told people to wear masks, socially distance and avoid crowds. They’ve reminded people about the availability of life-saving therapeutics. They’ve pleaded with people to get vaccinated and boosted.

As the latest and most transmissible Covid-19 variant has sent case numbers skyward, with hospitalizations and deaths also rising, the response from state officials has been largely muted, a concession to the reality that their messages rarely resonate and that most people — even, and sometimes especially, politicians — are ready to move on....