For months, the country has been waiting on a pandemic turning point — and it might be here, in the form of kids under age 5 becoming eligible for Covid vaccines.

population — coupled with the emergence of new variants and constant regional Covid surges — make it difficult to determine when exactly the pandemic will fade into endemic status.

have now received a primary Covid vaccine series, according to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

You can't just close your eyes and say, 'Nothing's going on, the pandemic is over,'" Herrick says.

Mokdad says the clinical trial data for those vaccines bodes well so far — but if you or your child aren't up-to-date on Covid shots, you shouldn't wait for a new vaccine to get approved.

That's especially important right now: New daily cases are on the rise again, according to Johns Hopkins University data, and that means a new variant of unknown severity could soon emerge

Thomas Russo, an infectious diseases physician at the University at Buffalo, says those types of unknowns make Covid especially impossible to predict