to move past the pandemic than any other country the country successfully stamped out the virus a year ago and is now just a couple of months away from fully vaccinating three quarters of its vast population an astounding feat life has been normal for the majority of its citizens through the past year and the economy has boomedyet the border is firmly sealed to outsiders and citizens cannot return without serving a long quarantine despite widespread vaccination it continues to deploy aggressive measures whenever virus flareups occur from locking down housing compounds to mandatory mass testing of entire city populations the efficacy of its vaccines has also been questioned after other places that have relied on them including mongolia and the united arab emirates have seen new infection surgeswere still early in this fight moss said we are going to continue to see widespread transmission in most countries in the worldafter more than 4 million deaths and almost 200 million cases the world is wearybut the bottom line is nations will need to figure out how to live alongside the virus many scientists expect the disease to become endemic circulating for years to come but likely posing less of a threat over time as people develop some immunity to it through natural infection or vaccinesits clear that we have to also balance the social impact of lockdowns with the health impact the mental health impact and the economic impact said sally davies englands former chief medical officer theres a lot for us to learn and we dont have the answers to quite a bit of it as yetin japan the worlds thirdlargest economy another covid emergency in tokyo and a decision to bar spectators from the main athletics events has overshadowed the countrys hosting of the olympic games smashing hopes for an economic springboardand like a track sprinter easing up too soon before the finish line leaders and people around the world have been too quick to want to declare an end or the beginning of the end to the pandemic the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed 50 million people before it burned out had three major waves running from march of that year to the summer of 1919 according to the cdc meanwhile vaccination campaigns against other major viral diseases have taken many years to reach the far corners of the world more than 60 years after the first polio vaccines rare cases of polio still occur in some countrieswanting the pandemic to be over has really caused many people to just not face the facts said osterholm the university of minnesota infectious disease expert i dont think the final script has been written for this pandemic at all