US experts scrambled in the spring to predict what the future of the pandemic might look like. Many predicted that the coronavirus – like the seasonal flu – would retreat in the summer before roaring back in a second, more severe wave come fall.

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But epidemiologists are now eschewing that idea.

"There's no evidence there's going to be a decrease in cases, a trough," epidemiologist Michael Osterholm told Business Insider. "It's just going to keep burning hot, kind of like a forest fire looking for human wood to burn."