“I think that across the country, we will see covid really starting to diminish in a noticeable way, such that we can talk about controlling or staying ahead of this pandemic in a sustained fashion for the first time,” said William Schaffner, an infectious-diseases expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “But I think in states such as my own, we will see covid continue to keep hospitals busy, causing small outbreaks here and there in schools or other places where people gather.”