It’s the question everyone is asking a year into the pandemic: When will things go back to normal?
Dr. Bob Wachter, chair of UCSF’s Department of Medicine, joined KCBS Radio’s "Ask An Expert" to answer that question.
Here’s the good news.
Dr. Wachter thinks that by June, enough people will have been vaccinated or have natural immunity from a COVID-19 infection to allow life to start to return something that will feel like normal.
But, he said true herd immunity will remain elusive.
"The big problem for us with herd immunity is that people are going to travel," Dr. Wachter said. "And even if 80% of the US is vaccinated, it’s not going to be 80% of the world."
Wherever the virus is widespread, it has the opportunity to mutate and produce variants that could evade vaccines.
"And as long as people are coming in and out, I think we’re always going to have to be looking for this virus," Dr. Wachter said. "Be vigilant, be ready to unfortunately put the masks back on, be ready to get new vaccines if we need to. We’re not going to be able to say, you know, COVID is out of our lives by the summer. Even if our lives start to feel pretty normal."
