COVID-19 will not vanish just because the year is 2022. During the early months, major international efforts will be made to guarantee that vaccination takes place all over the world. There is hope that the tide will turn and that the pandemic would gradually recede, though at various speeds in different countries.

Vaccination and mask mandates, as well as the political decisions that surround them, will go away. However, the pandemic’s lesson — that diseases know neither political or geographic boundaries — is one that political leaders will hopefully understand in 2022 and beyond.