Assumptions about the current situation:
- Around 2.8 percent of Americans are currently infected with covid.
- The dominant strain of covid-19 has a basic reproduction rate (R0) of 2.4; i.e., left unchecked, each person infected with the virus will in turn infect an average of 2.4 other people.
- Covid infection rates are currently at a steady state; i.e., each newly infected person is in turn infecting one other person. Steady-state contagion is attributable in part to preventive measures (masks, social distancing, etc.), in part to the reduction in the number of people who can contract the disease because they’ve already been infected.
- About 18 percent of the US population has already been infected with covid, leaving 82 percent vulnerable to contagion.
- Therefore, the current effective contagion rate of the virus (Rt) is 1.0/0.82 = 1.25. I.e., people infected with the virus infect on average 1.25 other people who have not previously been infected.
Assumptions about the first three months of 2021:
- Current levels of prevention (masks, social distancing, etc.) will persist; i.e., effective Rt will remain at 1.25.
- People remain infected for around 2 weeks before becoming immune (or dying). So, over the next 3 months = 13 weeks, an additional 2.8 x (13/2) = another 18 percent of Americans will have become infected, bringing the cumulative total to around 36 percent.
- Multiply 1.25 (Rt) by .64 (Americans still vulnerable to contagion) = 0.8. I.e., by the beginning of April 2021 the rate of new covid infections would be decreasing by 20% every two weeks.
- At that rate, the pandemic would run its course in about a year; i.e., by April 2022.
Now factor in assumptions about the covid vaccine over the next three months:
- The FDA-approved vaccines are 95% effective against the dominant strain of the virus.
- By the end of March 2021, 40 percent of the US population will have been vaccinated.
- Now, by early April, the percentage of Americans still vulnerable to infection would be around .6 (unvaccinated) x .7 (not yet infected) = 40 percent.
- Multiply 1.25 x .4 = 50% reduction in new covid infections every two weeks beginning in April.
- At that rate, the pandemic would have run its course in 5 months; i.e., by about September 2021.
Other variables not factored into these assumptions that would increase infection rates and delay the extinction of the pandemic:
- New, more contagious strains of the virus, for which the vaccines might not be as effective, might spread rapidly.
- The general public, becoming totally reliant on the vaccine, might abandon other preventive behaviors that suppress contagion.
- Logistical and behavioral and psychosocial fuckups slowing down the initial vaccine rollout might persist, lowering the percentage of people getting the shots.