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SARS CoV-2 Is (Probably) Becoming Endemic. What Does That Mean?
‘An infection that starts out as an epidemic or pandemic will eventually do one of two things’
Last February, President Trump famously announced that the coronavirus was going to disappear. “One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear.” Now, nearly eight months after that pronouncement, we are facing surging infection rates across the country, with cases rising nationally from 35,000 a day last September to more than 250,000 a day in January. It is time to face facts: This disease isn’t going anywhere. But the good news is that vaccinations are underway and we have been here before with infectious disease.
As the pandemic trudges on, in some regions, the SARS-CoV-2 virus may already be endemic, which is defined as a disease or condition “regularly found among particular people or in a certain area.” An epidemic occurs when a disease spreads through one population. A pandemic is marked by spread through all populations. In both cases, the disease comes from a brand new infectious…
