When Covid Is Same As "Flu Season": Pandemic Enters New Era

With rich countries vaccinating growing proportions of their vulnerable populations, the link between infection numbers and deaths appears to be diminishing.

After more than a year of obsessively tracking Covid-19 case numbers, epidemiologists are starting to shift focus to other measures as the next stage of the pandemic emerges. With rich countries vaccinating growing proportions of their vulnerable populations, the link between infection numbers and deaths appears to be diminishing. Now, the focus is on learning to live with the virus -- and on the data that matter most to avoid fresh lockdowns. "It's possible we'll get to a stage of only monitoring hospitalizations," said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Center, which has built one of the most comprehensive platforms to track the virus and its impact. Before vaccination campaigns took off in the U.K., U.S. and Europe, a spike in cases almost invariably translated into a surge in hospitalizations and deaths over the course of several weeks. The strain on health systems left leaders little choice but to place curbs on public life, disrupting economies, and forced people with other medical conditions to delay important procedures.