With winter at hand, the virus whips up winds of uncertainty By Associated Press | December 21, 2020 at 2:33 AM CST - Updated December 21 at 5:36 AM (AP) - Coronavirus cases spiking nationwide. A chill, existential and literal, setting in once more. And now: a winter likely to be streaked by a soundtrack of sirens instead of silver bells. It was winter when the pandemic began, and it will be winter long before itâs over. Weary and traumatized from months of death and confinement, Americans are being handed mixed messages, from governments to their own internal clocks running haywire on flattened time. Shouldnât it be over by now? After all, vaccines are arriving. But before the average person will get inoculated, winter will exact its toll.