When is a pandemic over

Governments and communities do nothing, people are allowed to be exposed as quickly as possible.

Hospitals reach peak capacity, millions of people die

When many people have been infected and either perished or survived by building up their immune responses, the virus can no longer find new hosts.

The pandemic fizzles out a short time after it began.

Governments and communities around the world slow the spread of the virus: quarantining the infected and people they’ve interacted with.

Hundreds of thousands of deaths.

Some cities get the outbreak under control and go back to business as usual

Within the next several years, one or possibly several vaccines become widely

Once 40-90% of the population has received it => The pandemic fizzles out.

To simultaneously starve the virus, everywhere, through a combination of quarantine, social distancing

The critical factor is to synchronize responses.

If coordinated properly, this could end a pandemic in just a few months, with low loss of life.

Unless the virus is completely eradicated— which is highly unlikely— there will be risks of it escalating to pandemic levels once again.