“I think we’re closer to the beginning than we are to the end [of the pandemic], and that’s not because the variant that we’re looking at right now is going to last that long,” said Larry Brilliant, an epidemiologist who was part of the World Health Organization’s team that helped eradicate smallpox. “Unless we vaccinate everyone in 200 plus countries, there will still be new variants,” he added, saying the coronavirus will eventually become a “forever virus” like influenza.
