All we have been hearing for the past month is how long is the coronavirus going to last. Schools have been repeatedly pushed back and many suspect that they will be pushed back again until next year like many colleges are doing. There have been more than 164,000 confirmed cases and 3000 deaths in the US due to the virus and it has not reached its peak yet. But what people don’t realize is that whenever this calms down and hopefully comes to the end, it may not be really over.

According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and one of the top infectious disease experts in the country, he suspects that there will be another outbreak in the fall. He specifically said that “In fact, I would anticipate that that would actually happen because of the degree of transmissibility” when responding to a question about the reemergence of the virus.

If this were the case then that could mean more colleges suspending the first semester of school creating an interesting scenario for current high school seniors like me. This could mean that we would have to learn to take online classes before even getting settled in and never meeting our professors. Another arguably bigger issue would be that this means fall sports like football would get delayed or canceled which would hit the hearts of many Americans.

However, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci the same man who predicts the reemergence of the virus, he predicts that things “are going to be very, very different.” Specifying Fauci said that “Our ability to go out and be able to test, identify, isolate, and contact trace, will be of a magnitude better than what it was just a couple months ago”. Meaning that we have come so far in research on the virus and are already testing a vaccine so we will be much better prepared medically for the virus. Also because we will have gone through this before, businesses will be prepared to take action faster along with other institutions like schools and universities creating a tougher environment for the virus to spread. I am also hopeful that the American people will have more confidence allowing the stock market to not lose thousands of points like it has with this virus because they will know that we got through it before.

On a final note, I hope that this never actually happens, but if it does then you should know that we will be more prepared.