It had been easier to illustrate the communal context of sports more metaphorically than literally, at least until the onset of COVID-19, when our great societal distraction became the vehicle that sounded the loudest sirens as to the virus' threat.

Despite the yelpings of science, it wasn't until the public learned that an NBA player named Rudy Gobert tested positive — and until the NBA subsequently shut down its game for a while — that other sports fell like dominos and more of the country began to appreciate the gravity of the new reality.

And so maybe now sports can act as a barometer again, allowing our games to play on through the vaccinated, rather than cave to the media panic of a new variant that continues to postpone games from high school through professional.

The Center for Disease Control gave sports and other institutions a path to normalcy Monday. From published reports:

"Federal health officials shortened the recommended time Americans infected with coronavirus should isolate from 10 days to five if they are asymptomatic — a decision they said was driven by a growing body of research about when people are most infectious.

"In addition, the CDC cut the quarantine period from 10 to five days (with five days of mask-wearing) for those exposed but not boosted, and recommended that those who already received their booster shot do not need to quarantine following an exposure ... but should wear a mask for 10 days."

To reiterate: "Those who already received their booster shot do not need to quarantine following an exposure ... but should wear a mask for 10 days."

This not only rewards the vaccinated, but provides some much-needed context as well. Abundances of caution were easier to understand in the pre-vaccine days. But why did we subsequently get jabbed in the arm three times if the consequences remain the same?

The words of Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin: "The cumulative effect is to de-escalate the response to omicron for vaccinated and boosted Americans, for whom the risk is minimal. The changes will reduce workplace interruptions and aid in our economic recovery.

"As we recognize that COVID-19 is not a deadly or even severe disease for the vast majority of responsible Americans, we can stop agonizing over 'cases' and focus on those who are hospitalized or at risk of dying. Omicron may be highly contagious, but the media's obsession with case numbers is unwarranted. It is only the willfully defiant unvaccinated Americans who remain at risk."

It runs counterintuitive in an information age that we're still finding our way two years into the pandemic. But there is no manual here. We live in a time of extremism over equanimity, raging misinformation reverberating in the echo chambers and decision makers facing perpetual damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't dilemmas.

But if the vaccine is not the answer, what is? It's time sports used more common sense in the teeth of this media obsession over omicron and started playing games again, particularly among the asymptomatic, vaccinated players. Otherwise the significance of the vaccine becomes moot.

This recent spate of canceled games at every level feels like the death penalty for a parking ticket. The point of the vaccine was never to universally safeguard us from infection, but to mitigate the risks and complications. That means the vaccine was meant to give us a chance to live our lives normally until COVID is harnessed.

Are we really living our lives normally?

We are all granted the powers of critical thinking. We get to be judicious and reasonable as easily as we are reactionary. And one of the best vehicles we can use toward the return of common sense is to illustrate that vaccinated, boosted people can live with a virus.

We sports fans hate the disappointment — and let's face it, the inconvenience — of postponed games. But imagine the impact when it's reported that Game A will be played among vaccinated players despite lingering COVID issues, but Game B will be postponed because of too many unvaccinated participants.

That's a great way for sports to reinforce vaccination efforts and make the unvaccinated answer more questions.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro