Pandemics come and pandemics go.
In the grip of a new infection spreading around a planet with no natural immunity, it can feel like the sky is falling. Over the coming months, it's likely that a significant share of the world's population will experience some of the dread of the COVID-19 coronavirus that people in China have suffered over the past few months. Many will die.
Still, the likely end-point of this outbreak will see it settle down as an endemic disease — one of the suite of respiratory viruses like influenza and the common cold that travel around the world year after year, with most of us regarding them as little more than a nuisance.
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