As COVID-19 Pandemic Eases, Experts Ponder the Future
Summary from the AllSides News Team
As new COVID-19 case levels stabilize and hospitalizations and deaths continue to fall in most areas nationwide, experts are predicting what will happen next.
Voices across the spectrum say COVID-19 is likely here to stay, but at more predictable levels than what we've seen since the pandemic began. New cases in the U.S. are around 74,000 per day, a 4% increase over the past two weeks after nearly two months of steady decline. Roughly 70% of U.S. adults are fully vaccinated, and a lower dose of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine was recently approved for kids.
Coverage from right-rated outlets often struck a more optimistic tone about the pandemic's end and the future of managing COVID-19. Many quoted former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who said over the weekend that "we’re close to the end of the pandemic phase." Some on the right argued that continued restrictions will have little impact on COVID-19's seasonal cycles and rising cases in winter months. Coverage from left- and center-rated sources more often framed the pandemic's end as uncertain while previewing the more manageable post-pandemic phase. Some quoted a CDC spokesperson who encouraged people to continue "measures that we know work -- vaccinating, wearing a mask in public, indoor settings, staying home when you are sick, and washing your hands frequently."
Featured Coverage of this Story
From the Left
America’s COVID future has arrivedThe U.S. and COVID-19 are settling into a long, but hopefully manageable future together.
The big picture: The worst of the pandemic is likely behind us, but the virus is here to stay. We’re entering a new phase — one in which the country’s overall experience with this virus will be less like having a heart attack, and more like managing a lifelong chronic condition.
Experts have been saying for a long time that there’s almost no chance COVID-19 would disappear. Rather, they’ve been expecting it to become endemic — meaning it...
From the Left
What the end of the Covid-19 pandemic could look likeCovid-19 is here to stay.
It's highly unlikely that the United States, let alone the world, will be able to completely eliminate the coronavirus that causes Covid-19.
But there will come a day when it's no longer a pandemic, when cases are no longer out of control and hospitals aren't at great risk of overflowing with patients. Many experts predict the spread of coronavirus will look and feel more like seasonal influenza.
What's less clear is how and when that will happen.
"There's not even a measurement to say that...
From the Center
Dr. Scott Gottlieb reveals the end of the pandemic is nearThe United States might be nearing the end of the pandemic phase of the coronavirus outbreak, Dr. Scott Gottlieb said over the weekend.
Gottlieb, the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, said during “Face the Nation” on CBS News over the weekend that the U.S. is “close” to the end of the pandemic.
“I think that we’re close to the end of the pandemic phase of this virus, and we’re going to enter a more endemic phase and as things improve, cases may pick up,” Gottlieb said.
COVID-19 numbers may start to trend upward...
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