The novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 has quickly taken over our lives. As the global pandemic worsens, lockdowns across states and nations have gone into effect while hospitals in hard-hit areas remain in a state of constant crisis. As of March 27, over half a million people have been infected worldwide and deaths have topped 25,000. Those counts will increase greatly before the pandemic is over.
As we deal with the day-to-day realities of a worldwide disease, many of us are simply waiting for the pandemic to end. But there’s a worrying possibility lurking underneath the present crisis: COVID-19 might never go away.
There’s a very real chance the novel coronavirus could become endemic in the human population, much like influenza. If so, we could be living with COVID-19 for a long time.