Dec. 19, 2020
You may remember “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day,” a children’s book about a delightfully grouchy kid who has to endure a string of indignities in one dreadful day.
Like Alexander, millions of people across the world have collectively had a terrible, horrible year (but unlike him, the difficulties we’ve faced are far worse than sitting in the middle of the back seat or having to eat lima beans). Here’s the thing, though, 2020 wasn’t entirely bad. There were happy developments. While some are obvious (coronavirus vaccines), others may have been easier to overlook.
Third Wave Coming: How We re Getting Smarter About COVID-19 2020-12-12
PARIS With much of the world trying to minimize the impact of a COVID-19 second wave, governments are again forced to make impossible choices between relaxing restrictions to avoid total economic implosion or staying shut down to limit death tolls. Even countries typically mentioned as pandemic role models, like South Korea, are seeing a resurgence of cases.
But perhaps the grimmest news of the second wave is that many experts say we re bound for a third wave.
We know little about how things will play out, especially as hopeful results continue to arrive from several major vaccine efforts. But the logistical challenge of deploying a global vaccination effort means there s a real risk of a third wave arriving well before the virus is defeated. Others say that the next surge would be better characterized as a second installment of a drawn-out second wave.