For the past few months, our PODCAST-19 team has been grappling with how best to report on the pandemic. A lot has changed since we started this podcast in May 2020. Globally, we’ve invented multiple, effective vaccines; we’ve learned how to care for patients better in hospitals; and we’ve mobilized a massive public health effort to fully immunize over 56 percent of eligible Americans.

But a lot has also stayed the same. As vaccines get rolled out in rich countries, I hear an echo of the conversations we had in early 2020. Who — both in the U.S. and around the globe — has the right to even the most basic levels of medical care? And how much risk and how many deaths are we willing to accept in order to get back to business?

That recursive loop of the pandemic news cycle has made it difficult to find a way forward for PODCAST-19. And so, even though we know the pandemic is far from over for so many, this is the last episode of PODCAST-19. We’ve decided to sunset the show, but our team will be writing articles and making videos to continue bringing you the most important pandemic news. You can listen to the final episode of PODCAST-19 or read the transcript below.

Anna Rothschild: We’ve really struggled with whether now is the right time to end the show. We’re aware that COVID-19 isn’t over. On July 5, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that England would drop mask mandates and social distancing by mid-July, while acknowledging that things could get worse in the U.K. before then:

Boris Johnson: There could be 50,000 cases detected per day by the 19th. And we must reconcile ourselves, sadly, to more deaths from COVID.

Read the full article about why COVID-19 isn't really over by Anna Rothschild at FiveThirtyEight.