The end of the pandemic will not be televised

… Unlike any previous pandemic, covid-19 has been closely tracked

… numbers, statistics, epidemic curves … data to grasp onto in the midst of uncertainty and fear

… directing public sentiment, fuelling pressure for countermeasures, and maintaining an aura of emergency

… drive a sense of helplessness and impending catastrophe when cases rise.

… There is no universal definition of the epidemiological parameters of the end of a pandemic

… a sense that the pandemic will be over when the dashboard indicators all reach either zero (infections, cases, deaths) or 100 (percentage vaccinated)

… is better understood as occurring with the resumption of social life, not the achievement of specific epidemiological targets

… Inter-pandemic years have sometimes had higher death tolls than the pandemic seasons 

… a pandemic’s end cannot be defined by the absence of excess deaths associated with the pandemic pathogen

… Measures used in previous pandemics have been more fleeting and less intrusive than those that have been used in covid-19

… is historically unique in the extent to which the interruption and resumption of social life has been so closely tied to epidemiological metrics

… 1918 “Spanish flu” … 1957 “Asian flu” … 1968 “Hong Kong flu”

… conclude … when, in the attention of the general public and in the judgment of certain media and political elites who shape that attention, the disease ceases to be newsworthy

… Pandemic dashboards provide endless fuel, ensuring the constant newsworthiness of the covid-19 pandemic

… Pandemic dashboards provide endless fuel, ensuring the constant newsworthiness of the covid-19 pandemic, even when the threat is low

… Pandemic ending … is more of a sociological phenomenon than a biological one

… dashboards—which do not measure mental health, educational impact, and the denial of close social bonds—are not the tool

… will be over when we turn off our screens and decide that other issues are once again worthy of our attention. Unlike its beginning, the end of the pandemic will not be televised