The silver lining of a tough January and February is that most of the country could have some degree of immunity afterwards — either through vaccination, infection, or both — that helps protect them against severe COVID infections in the future.

“It’s conceivable that, sooner or later, that everybody will have been infected and/or vaccinated or boosted,” NIAID Director Anthony Fauci told Axios.

“When you get to that point, unless you have a very bizarre variant come in that evades all protection — which would be unusual — then I think you could get to that point where you have this at a steady level.”

And a fourth shot isn’t off the table, Fauci said: “It is entirely conceivable that that may be the case.”