NEWS FEATURE
05 August 2020

How the pandemic might play out in 2021 and beyond

This coronavirus is here for the long haul — here’s what scientists predict for the next months and years.

Megan Scudellari⁰

Megan Scudellari
1. Megan Scudellari is a science journalist in Boston, Massachusetts.
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Illustration of a line of people walking through a jungle that is filled with Sars-CoV-2 virus. — Illustration by Ana Kova

June 2021. The world has been in pandemic mode for a year and a half. The virus continues to spread at a slow burn; intermittent lockdowns are the new normal. An approved vaccine offers six months of protection, but international deal-making has slowed its distribution. An estimated 250 million people have been infected worldwide, and 1.75 million are dead.

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Nature 584, 22-25 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-02278-5

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