The Atlantic A Simple Rule of Thumb for Knowing When the Pandemic Is Over At some point—maybe even soon—the emergency phase of the pandemic will end. But what, exactly, is that magic threshold? The Atlantic In the middle of January, the deadliest month of the pandemic, one day after inauguration, the Biden administration put out a comprehensive national strategy for “beating COVID-19.” The 200-page document includes many useful goals, such as “Restore trust with the American people” and “Mount a safe, effective, and comprehensive vaccination campaign.” But nowhere does it give a quantitative threshold for when it will be time to say, “Okay, done—we’ve beaten the pandemic.”