Harvard Professor Juliette Kayyem On The Return To 'Normal-ish'

Juliette Kayyem made her weekly appearance on Boston Public Radio Wednesday, where she spoke about America’s relationship with the coronavirus in the years and decades to come.

She contrasted pandemics with other varieties of crisis, like natural disasters or terrorist attacks, “where the thing comes and goes,” and explained that pandemics are fundamentally different because the viruses stick around.

“The vaccine is a major contributor to getting back to normal-ish,” the CNN analyst prefaced. “But it doesn’t eradicate the virus, it simply makes us able to live with the virus.

She continued, noting that certain aspects of our life “probably, are changed for good.”

“I think masking will be a huge part of our lives for the years to come,” she predicted.

But she was also keen to emphasize that things are likely to get much better in the near-term, considering the acute grimness of pandemic wintertime in New England.

“I promise you, I think by May or June, you’re going to feel 70-75% more normal – or towards normal – than you do right now,” she said.

Juliette Kayyem is an analyst for CNN, former assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security and faculty chair of the homeland security program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.