No surprises, really, but it's kind of a stark shock to read "It's possible to reach herd immunity, and the lose it. Repeatedly."
The usual suspects are anti-vaxxers, about whom the less said the better, and seasonal fluctuations. We could get it all under control by early fall, and then lose in by the New Year. Not only do we tend to gather inside a lot more when it's cold (and when it's the holidays), but there is some evidence emerging that COVID does better in cooler temperatures, and also in lower humidity, which is a feature of all heated homes and buildings.
Of course, once we begin traveling again, we will be moving variants all over the world, and introducing them to immune systems which do not have the right antibodies to address that particular variant. This is already happening, and the complexity of the problem is mind-boggling.
Finally, we won't really be able to tell for sure when we reach herd immunity, because there are still disagreements over what percentage need to be immune (vaccinations + infected and recovered) before the virus burns itself out. And, worldwide, it's difficult to believe that we'll ever be able to compute that number accurately enough, anyway.
But we'll be able to see pretty clearly when we lose herd immunity - cases will spike significantly.
So - we may not know that the new world has arrived for a long, long time. Coastal marshes, barrier islands, inlet mazes, reefs and shallows. In and out. Columbus didn't know how good he had it.
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