BC Science Professor Shares Thoughts on When Coronavirus Will End
Since the first confirmed case of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in the United States on January 20, 2020, cases and deaths from the virus have continued to climb. As of May 5, 2020, 1,171,510 people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with COVID-19, and 68,279 have died from the virus, prompting lots of Americans to wonder when will this pandemic go away and when will we be able to return to normal.
We asked Dr. Emily Lambert, a BC professor of biology, that very question. Dr. Lambert, a trained microbiologist with advanced research in microbial genetic, has taken a keen interest in the coronavirus, and she suggests that conditions may not return to what they were before the pandemic until as late as June.
“(Expert data) suggests that the U.S. will not get back to a place similar to where we were prior to BC going online until somewhere between the last week of May and the last week of June,” Dr. Lambert said. “The better news is that it is predicted that the most deadly time period of the pandemic in the U.S. will end by the end of April (or) beginning of May.”
Graph from early April 2020 showing projections of the pandemic peak, cases and deaths.
Dr. Lambert noted that the most significant number of cases and deaths from COVID-19 will likely occur in May.
“People have to dig deep and find patience as time goes by,” she said. “Every day it becomes more and more tempting to go out and do more and be around more people. This could have detrimental effects if we do not socially distance long enough.”
Dr. Lambert added that because of the nature of the coronavirus and the fact that, until recently, people had never been infected with this strain, we have to give the population enough time to gradually be infected, get treated by the healthcare system, and build up immunity.
And while with proper social distancing and enough time the coronavirus will eventually dissipate, Dr. Lambert said that because it is an organism capable of mutating, it could return.
“There could be a resurgence in the fall and immunity — even if you have already been infected — may be limited,” she said. “If we look to past pandemics, including the Spanish Flu that occurred about 100 years ago, it is common to see resurgence.”
Dr. Lambert noted that the Spanish Flu came in three waves with the second wave being the most deadly.
“The American people need to be aware of this possibility,” she said, “so that once we see case numbers decrease we are not filled with a false sense of hope that this is over.”