Will there be an end date for the coronavirus pandemic?

Don’t set a date for your end-of-Covid party just yet

Brighton beach
Revellers enjoy the weather on Brighton beach as restrictions ease in the UK but the pandemic is far from over
(Image credit: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

Agnes Arnold-Forster, a history of medicine and healthcare researcher at the University of Bristol, on the messy business of pandemics.

“After the pandemic is over” must be one of the most frequently uttered phrases of 2021. I am certainly guilty of this kind of optimism, longing for the day when I can get on a plane, have dinner with my friends, and cuddle all the new babies I know who have been born under the restrictive eye of COVID-19.

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