By Sarah Jacoby; Today.com
More than three years into the COVID-19 pandemic, experts have learned just how hard it is to predict what this virus will do next. But with vaccines, treatment options and a better understanding of how the virus spreads, we’re in a very different place than we were in 2020. For now, experts are cautiously optimistic.
"COVID came in like a lion, and I think it's going to exit kind of like a lamb," Dr. Emily Volk, president of College of American Pathologists, tells TODAY.com.
"Obviously, we've seen a lot of lives lost and a lot of long-term (consequences) from COVID," she says. But at this point, the virus isn't flooding ICUs and emergency departments, she says, and it's becoming something we treat more like the seasonal flu.
But that doesn't mean COVID-19 will go away completely, Dr. Timothy Brewer, professor of medicine and epidemiology at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, tells TODAY.com.
"This virus is very well adapted for human-to-human transmission," he says. And even as it begins to adhere more closely to seasonal patterns, "we likely will continue to see year-round transmission at least for the near future."
When — and how — will COVID-19 actually end?
“I don’t think we’ll have a point where we can plant the flag in the ground and say COVID is over,” Dr. Taison Bell, assistant professor of medicine in the divisions of infectious diseases and international health and pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of Virginia, tells TODAY.com.
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