Covid-19 marches toward endemic status in U.S. as Omicron spreads

Covid-19 marches toward endemic status in U.S. as Omicron spreads

Andrew Noymer, an infectious-disease epidemiologist, [associate professor of public health] and demographer at the University of California, Irvine, who studies the 1918 flu pandemic, said he expects variant-driven waves of Covid-19 to hit the U.S. periodically for decades, particularly in winter. Mortality will likely drop over time, as population immunity rises, he said. The price will likely be more disease and deaths among people most vulnerable to the virus. “Covid is part of the woodwork now,” he said. “It’s part of the furniture.”