As mask wearing tapers off, are we seeing more ordinary colds?

Absolutely.
I started the year with a respiratory infection that had me in bed for a week!

Not so far. Masks are one thing but the hand washing, face-touching thing is the real culprit IMO. I still carry and use hand sanitizer pretty much at all times.

Absolutely. It’s been happening for a year now.

Note: a lot of the colds are covid and people aren’t testing, because they think it’s “just a cold.” This happened to my parents, and I pushed (nagged) them to test. Plenty of other viruses going around too though.

Did you test? It’s been taking until day 2 or 3 to come up positive for a lot of people. What you describe sounds a lot like a lot of people who have covid. Laryngitis has been added onto the symptoms for some people with the covid cold, but not everyone.

I haven’t been sick yet. Lucky for now.

Absolutely.
I know several teachers and they were back to the norm of kids and them catching colds after the return to school.

I’m just recovering from a pretty bad cold (I tested or Covid a few times) that had me in best or most of the week.

Yes, I got a pretty bad one in California in January but it was not Covid. I’m sure it’s partly the masks but we’re all interacting more “normally” with other people, in public places, etc. I’m still not going into crowded venues and I do wear a mask in the supermarket but mostly back to normal and I travel to see my kids.

I caught some cold a couple weeks ago.

bed not best.