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New COVID guidance from the White House
For the first time, those leading the U.S.'s COVID-19 response team have acknowledged that the country may very well be moving into a new state of what seems like a never-ending pandemic.
NEW YORK - With more than 40% or at least 140 million people in the United States infected with coronavirus during the pandemic, 60% were never sickened, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It warrants the question: will the remaining uninfected eventually get the virus? According to some health experts, the answer is no-- for now.
"From my perspective, no, it’s not inevitable" over the next year or two, University of San Francisco Chair of Medicine Dr. Bob Wachter told the San Francisco Chronicle.
If case rates remain low, the un-sickened will not be exposed enough to contract the virus.
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But it might be too early to say for sure whether infection will happen in the distant future.
"Are we all going to get it? Yes, biologically, that might happen," Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at UCSF, told the SF Chronicle. "Are we at a time to embrace that philosophy? No, because the virus is still causing a lot of suffering. Almost 2,000 deaths per day is no walk in the park."
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NYC lifts more COVID mandates
New York City took a major step towards the end of the pandemic on Friday, lifting COVID mandates in public schools and in many businesses and restaurants.
The experts agree that as society opens up more with masks and vaccine mandates dropped, anyone who has not contracted COVID can avoid it during the low phase by getting vaccinated.
Scientists expect COVID-19 will eventually settle into becoming a more predictable virus like the flu, meaning it will cause seasonal outbreaks but not huge surges, said Dr. Chris Woods, an infectious disease expert at Duke University.
"Even after the pandemic ends, COVID will still be with us," added Woods.