Vaccine distribution is accelerating in the U.S. There are still several ways we could screw this up—or get it right.

It’s September 2022, nearly three years after a mysterious virus began sweeping through China. In the United States, kids of all ages, newly vaccinated against Covid, are back in school, and their parents are back to work. But in pockets of the country, especially where vaccine hesitancy lingers, Covid still surges, shutting down schools and workplaces when too many people call in sick. Around the world, the vaccine rollout has been painfully slow, particularly in poorer countries as the richer ones hoard their vaccine patents. This inequality allows the virus to move largely unchecked across the globe, mutating until the vaccines become less effective and everyone needs boosters, as we anxiously monitor new variants. Meanwhile, countless people still battle debilitating symptoms of long Covid every day, even among those who had mild or asymptomatic cases. Covid remains a serious threat, rather than a painful memory.

This is a likely scenario if we continue down our current path. But in this choose-your-own-Covid-adventure, there is always time to change course. Now, exactly one year after the World Health Organization declared this emergency a pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 is likely endemic, at least for the next few years. But how long it remains, and how severely it affects our lives, is up to us. Read more at The New Republic.