When Will We Be Back To Normal?
The United States declared the coronavirus a health emergency in February of 2020 and the virus has plagued the nation ever since. During its time in the United States, the virus has claimed over half a million lives and infected nearly thirty million Americans. However, there finally seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel: three different vaccines have been approved for use in the United States, and the United States COVID-19 cases have declined to be nearly a sixth of what they were during the winter. As a result of this news, seventeen states have gotten rid of mandatory mask mandates. While President Biden has categorized this move as “neanderthal thinking,” he is optimistic about a return to some form of normalcy by the summer. Biden anticipates that the United States will have enough vaccines for all adults by the end of May. Considering that over a quarter of the US population has now been vaccinated once or twice and experts think it will only take seventy to eighty-five percent of the United States to achieve herd immunity, an end to the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States could be sooner than many think. Dr. Fauci, the President's Chief Medical advisor, said that while “It's not gonna be exactly the way it was before this happened,” the United States could see itself entering a period that is “a heck of a lot better, as we approach the late spring and early summer.”
Unfortunately, the rest of the world may not see a new normal until much later. Only around four percent of the world has been vaccinated and global new COVID-19 cases have increased for five weeks in a row. Not only does this mean that a new normal may take longer to arise worldwide, but it also poses a threat to the United States reaching a new normal by the summer. As viruses replicate they often go through genetic mutations which can cause a variant to arise. Variants can be more deadly and more contagious than the original strand of the virus. Considering the increase in worldwide transmission, viruses will likely replicate more, leading to an increase in COVID-19 variants. Dr. Fauci claimed that it's possible a new variant could “essentially evade the protection of the vaccine.” This poses the greatest threat to the United States and the world, as it could force a whole new vaccine to be developed. With that said, Biden’s new plan to administer 200 million vaccines in the remainder of his first hundred days (double what he initially projected) makes America entering a new normal in late spring seem like a real possibility. The CDC guidelines claim that once vaccinated, it is acceptable to “visit with other fully vaccinated people indoors without wearing masks or staying 6 feet apart.” It is entirely possible that this could be the reality for the majority of Americans by late spring and early summer, but the current vaccination rate suggests that it will take much longer to vaccinate the rest of the world.
By: Ben Butcher
Google Covid Tracker (taken from NYT)
