Gone are the days when epidemiologists poured over COVID-19 case numbers, as well as new infections and related deaths. As a broad vaccine rollout in the U.S. has brought much of the pandemic to a heel, the focus has now turned to learning how to live with variants and what measures the population can take against them. The real test of the current immunization campaign will be whether hospitalizations and deaths stay low, which can make the virus more manageable long-term.

Next stage: Some public health officials and infectious disease experts have said there is a high likelihood that COVID-19 will become an endemic disease, meaning it'll always be present in the population - but circulating at lower rates - while others think we may have to "live with the virus forever." "It's possible we'll get to a stage of only monitoring hospitalizations," declared Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Center, which created one of the most comprehensive platforms in the world to track the disease.

Following the vaccine rollout, comparing the prevalence of COVID to the flu (which kills around 650K people globally each year, including about 36K in the U.S.), could become an important barometer in the fall and winter. That could impact policy decisions like lockdowns and school closures, as well as other preparations generally announced before flu season. The comparison of data may also be helpful when assessing new variants of the disease, like the rapidly spreading Delta variant.

Boosters? Even if current COVID-19 vaccines are found to be less effective in stopping the transmission of future variants, they still could prevent hospitalization and death (similar to a flu vaccine that helps block severe disease). That could also afford hospitals the ability to deal with an influx of patients, or be coupled with renewed mask mandates during the cold and flu season. People may still need to get vaccinated against COVID-19 annually over the next several years, Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) CEO Alex Gorsky predicted back in February, meaning the jabs could become like seasonal flu shots.