The coronavirus pandemic has been so unpredictable over the last couple of years that trying to decipher whether the recent Delta variant surge (which is now declining) will be the last of its size feels "bold" and "premature," Nicholas Reich, a professor of biostatistics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, told The Hill. He noted that new variants could pop up, and there are still questions about how long immunity from vaccination and prior infection last, leaving open the possibility for another intense period.
Sure, those are things to keep an eye on, David Dowdy, a Johns Hopkins University epidemiologist told The Hill, acknowledging that "anyone who says they can predict the future of the pandemic is probably lying to you." But there's also room for optimism, he argued. At least in the sense that "we will not see another massive wave the way that we have seen so far." One reason, Dowdy suggested, is that a new, vaccine-evasive variant is unlikely to emerge in the short-term because Delta has remained so dominant across the world nothing else has been able to gain a real foothold. Read more at The Hill.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
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.
-
New Year's Eve: UK events and celebrationsThe Week Recommends Start 2025 with a bang by watching the best fireworks and extravaganzas around the country
-
Five festive cocktails for Christmas 2024The Week Recommends Serve seasonal cocktails for an extra special gathering
-
Octopuses could be the next big species after humansUNDER THE RADAR What has eight arms, a beaked mouth, and is poised to take over the planet when we're all gone?
-
California declares bird flu emergencySpeed Read The emergency came hours after the nation's first person with severe bird flu infection was hospitalized
-
Bird flu one mutuation from human threat, study findsSpeed Read A Scripps Research Institute study found one genetic tweak of the virus could enable its spread among people
-
Dark chocolate tied to lower diabetes riskSpeed Read The findings were based on the diets of about 192,000 US adults over 34 years
-
ACA opens 2025 enrollment, enters 2024 raceSpeed Read Mike Johnson promises big changes to the Affordable Care Act if Trump wins the election
-
McDonald's sued over E. coli linked to burgerSpeed Read The outbreak has sickened at least 49 people in 10 states and left one dead
-
Texas dairy worker gets bird flu from infected cowSpeed Read The virus has been spreading among cattle in Texas, Kansas, Michigan and New Mexico
-
Dengue hits the Americas hard and earlySpeed Read Puerto Rico has declared an epidemic as dengue cases surge
-
US bans final type of asbestosSpeed Read Exposure to asbestos causes about 40,000 deaths in the U.S. each year
