In much of the United States, it's beginning to feel like the pandemic is almost over. COVID-19 restrictions have eased and mask mandates have been lifted as daily cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to decline in a majority of cities across the country.
Yet some epidemiologists fear that the returning sense of normalcy may merely be a mirage, when in reality the country is on the brink of yet another wave of a newly-mutant variant. Currently, in parts of Europe — where COVID-19 restrictions eased a couple months before they did in the U.S. — infection rates are starting to climb. And as it did previously, Europe's experience may herald what is to come in the United States.
