, Columnist
What Covid-19’s Second Wave Could Look Like
Crucial unknowns will steer the plague’s progress.
Next?
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The world is beginning to loosen restrictions that have been put in place to limit the spread of Covid-19. Leaders of countries, states and cities are finding they have little choice but to return to economic activity well before an effective vaccine or treatment for the disease is available. This means secondary outbreaks are a near certainty.
What’s uncertain is how devastating future surges of infection will be. If they’re sporadic and kept under control, death rates will stay low, and life may inch back toward normalcy. If they’re large, countries and regions may need to dive back into shutdown mode, extending the pandemic’s economic damage.