The lives of many Americans were completely altered after the lockdown that began in March after a surge of COVID-19 cases started popping up in the U.S. The quarantine lasted well into the early months of summer when the government slowly started opening the states back up. There have been 13.8 mil cases total in the United States, along with 271,000 deaths. 

Scientists are still not sure if and when the virus will be gone. “It’s very unlikely we’re going to be able to declare the kind of victory we did over SARS,” said Stephen Morse, an epidemiologist at Columbia University. It is hard for scientists and epidemiologists to study the virus and track the outcomes, especially since the virus hasn’t been around long enough to look at previous data. Schools are still socially distanced and some are even fully online.

According to McKinsey and Company, scientists say it could take longer than our lifetimes to see an end to this virus. And returning to a “new normal” might not look quite like the old.