When is it over? Well I would suggest it's over when Bob Dylan writes his final masterpiece.
Then we can call it a day, or a life, and we can go home satisfied that we did our best, played the game, listened and tried to discover the meaning of it all.
Meanwhile, let us all remember that in our neck of the woods, things have actually been over for quite some time.
It's been several weeks since we had an active Covid-19 case in Shepparton and we've patiently accepted restrictions on gatherings and stood in line at supermarkets and behaved sensibly.
Right now, according to the latest figures released yesterday by the Department of Health and Human Services there are no active cases in Strathbogie, Moira, Benalla, Murrindindi Mitchell. The nearest active case is a single one somewhere in Campaspe.
Looking down the list of districts there is a string of zeros from the West Wimmera to East Gippsland - apart from one lonely case at Swan Hill.
On the other hand, encounter Melbourne and its outer suburban sardine-can and suddenly the figures are in double digits.
Brimbank 21, Hume 17, Casey 11, Moonee Valley 13, Whittlesea 14.
The point is - why are economies in places with no Covid cases, and which have not seen Covid cases for weeks, under the same restrictions as those in areas where clusters are clearly more evident and disturbing?
Here in the country it's no longer about Covid response. It's about Covid recovery.
How do we get out of this with our sanity intact? We still have mortgages, rates, power, fuel and food bills to pay for but we are heading towards the cliff of no return - the JobKeeper deadline.
Metro areas are big spending engines - they have a lot more people to spend up on wines and coffees and takeaways. Here in Shepparton, our cafes and restaurants have been doing some spectacular pivoting to deliver the goods but our populations are just not big enough or close enough to keep this thing going.
Country economies are feeling the same sting of Covid restrictions without the same figures to justify them.
Public health rules depend on goodwill and trust, which like a face mask's elastic, will only stretch so far.
When the usually conservative Shepparton Chamber of Commerce and Industry calls for a separate Regional Plan to relax the Covid rules and help country economies, it's time to listen.
We now need more than stern words about how we are all in this together.
Clearly we are not all in this together on the same level.
This is turning into Animal Farm - some people are more Covid equal than others.
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