In the early going, there was an opportunity to put the genie back in the bottle with effective management. Certain countries seized that chance. Though the numbers were larger, one could argue we had a second chance during the economic shutdown. Had everyone cooperated and the government ramped up testing and contract tracing rapidly, we'd be in much better shape now.

Now the numbers are so large that it will be hard to prevent a steady flow of new infections. We can probably affect the steepness of the curve but we won't be able to eradicate it until mass immunity is achieved -- through a vaccine or the virus having run its course (I'm setting aside mutations here...hard to predict that). I