No, this won't be over soon

Infectious disease specialists expect waves of infection

A subway car.
(Image credit: Jeenah Moon/Getty Images)

This is the editor's letter in the current issue of The Week magazine.

By Memorial Day, says Vice President Mike Pence, "we will have this coronavirus epidemic behind us." In the warmth of summer, he and other sunny optimists predict, the virus will vanish like magic. By fall, the economy will come roaring back in a "V-shaped" recovery, and the past two months will all seem like a bad dream. Wouldn't it be lovely? When faced with a monu­mental crisis, optimism can be ­helpful — but magical thinking, not so much. It can lead to reckless behavior and disappointment. There is no reason to expect the virus to disappear in May or June or any time in 2020, says ­infectious-­disease specialist ­Michael Oster­holm, who's been urging the world to prepare for a pandemic since 2005. "This first wave of illness," he told CNN this week, "is just the beginning of what could very easily be 16 to 18 months of substantial activity of this virus around the world, coming and going, wave after wave."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
William Falk

William Falk is editor-in-chief of The Week, and has held that role since the magazine's first issue in 2001. He has previously been a reporter, columnist, and editor at the Gannett Westchester Newspapers and at Newsday, where he was part of two reporting teams that won Pulitzer Prizes.