Johns Hopkins expert says COVID-19 pandemic could end by April
Daily infections have reportedly declined by 77 percent since January
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A Johns Hopkins professor and surgeon says that the coronavirus could be "mostly gone" by April.
Marty Makary, who teaches at the university’s School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health, said in an opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal on Friday that daily infections have declined by 77 percent since January.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"There is reason to think the country is racing toward an extremely low level of infection," Makary wrote. "As more people have been infected, most of whom have mild or no symptoms, there are fewer Americans left to be infected. At the current trajectory, I expect COVID will be mostly gone by April, allowing Americans to resume normal life."
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Vaccinations and the high number of people who have already been infected in the US — more than 28 million — could contribute to herd immunity in the spring, Makary said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The White House and other experts have not been as optimistic, with some saying herd immunity may not be reached until much later in the year.
Herd immunity occurs when enough people become immune to a virus, ending its spread. Makary also said it would protect against new strains of the coronavirus from spreading.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"When the chain of virus transmission has been broken in multiple places, it’s harder for it to spread — and that includes the new strains," he said.