In the literal sense, exponential spread _of Covid-19_ is clearly no longer a good description in the US (or many other countries). It may describe the spread

In the literal sense, exponential spread _of Covid-19_ is clearly no longer a good description in the US (or many other countries). It may describe the spread of new variants, but the impact on most people of getting the latest variant of covid-19 is about like the impact of getting the latest variant of influenza (which can kill you, but normally does not). The number of people with covid-19 is not going exponentially up, as it once was, it is now coming in waves that are probably never going to reach the peak of the initial Omicron. Now, literally speaking, every new variant of covid-19, influenza, or any cold virus is obviously going to be exponential (and half of the time, exponential decay). But the population is no longer "immunologically naive", in western countries.