How will pandemic end? Omicron clouds forecasts for endgame

By LAURAN NEERGAARD and CARLA K. JOHNSON
AP Medical Writers

The fast-moving omicron variant is complicating a key question: How does the COVID-19 pandemic end and the world coexist with this virus? Experts agree that the coronavirus is here to stay. Ending the pandemic won’t be like flipping a light switch. Nor do scientists expect omicron to be the last mutant. But at some point, different parts of the world — probably at different times — will tamp down the virus enough to ease up on the constant state of red alert and to consider it another of the health threats we live with.