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The beginning of the end of the pandemic?

James Cridland
/
flickr

COVID-19 was officially designated a pandemic in March of 2020.

At that point, some scientists already predicted the only way out of the pandemic was when it became endemic — or essentially when the infection generally stopped interfering with our lives.

Now, as omicron has become the dominant COVIDstrain in the U.S., and because it appears to cause less severe disease, some experts suggest we are entering the endemic stage.

But past variants have completely upended expectations for the virus, and a future variant may only extend the pandemic even further.

We speak with two experts about the possibility of COVID becoming endemic — or, in other words, how the pandemic might end.

GUESTS

Dr. Katherine J. Wu, staff writer at The Atlantic

Dr. Jonathan Quick, adjunct professor of global health at Duke University, former president and CEO of Management Sciences for Health and former director of Essential Drugs and Medicines Policies at the World Health Organization

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Jesse Steinmetz is Producer of Charlotte Talks with Mike Collins. Before joining WFAE in 2019, he was an intern at WNPR in Hartford, Connecticut and hosted a show at Eastern Connecticut State University.