Some people say COVID-19 will soon be endemic, but an epidemiologist warns that a return to “normalcy” may leave communities of color and other vulnerable populations at risk

The textbook definition of endemic is when an illness is always present in a given population, but at predictable levels, unlike the waves of COVID cases we’ve seen in the pandemic.

But what does “endemic” for COVID-19 look like? And what’s the best way to get there?

Ramnath Subbaraman, an assistant professor at Tufts University School of Medicine, cautions against simply “declaring that we’re done.”

Subbaraman is the associate director of the Tufts Center for Global Public Health and an infectious disease physician specializing in tuberculosis, which is considered endemic in certain parts of the world and was the leading infectious cause of death worldwide before COVID-19 arrived.

Here, Subbaraman explains more about endemicity and the potential risks of a return normalcy: