The pandemic might 'feel' over by July, public health expert predicts

Ashish Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, is aiming to host a barbecue at his house in Massachusetts on Independence Day next year, he told The Atlantic's Ed Yong.

He said he is hopeful that by that point the state will have inoculated everyone who wants to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, freeing up a larger group of people to gather at his home, albeit outside. Jha doesn't think the coronavirus will be eradicated by July, but he anticipates its currently rapid spread will be reduced to a simmer. "It won't be normal, but it won't be like Fourth of July 2020," he said. "I think that's when it'll start to feel like we're no longer in a pandemic."

Lloyd Pace, the executive director of a nonprofit called the Global Health Council and a member of President-elect Joe Biden's COVID-19 task force, agrees people can "think about next summer as a marker for when we might be able to breathe again." But he warns it won't be easy. "There's almost a year's worth of work that needs to happen in those six months," he said.

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Success, Yong writes, hinges on executing "the most complicated vaccination program in U.S. history," continued adherence to mask-wearing and social distancing, countering misinformation, and keeping an eye on coronavirus mutations. Read more at The Atlantic.