Cases are skyrocketing in multiple states—and epidemiologists worry that Americans are misunderstanding the threat. Last week, in an op-ed, Vice President Mike Pence made a highly misleading claim: There is no “second wave” of coronavirus in the United States, he wrote, and the Trump administration is winning the war against “the invisible enemy.”

Research from genetic-testing giant 23andMe Inc. found differences in a gene that influences a person’s blood type can affect a person’s susceptibility to Covid-19. Scientists have been looking at genetic factors to try to determine why some people who contract the new coronavirus experience no symptoms, while others become gravely ill.

Embracing that reality is crucial to the next phase of America’s pandemic response, experts say. There’s a good chance the coronavirus will never go away. Even after a vaccine is discovered and deployed, the coronavirus will likely remain for decades to come, circulating among the world’s population.

For all that’s still being discovered about the novel coronavirus, one thing was clear from the beginning: It moves. In just a few months, it sprinted around the world and left in its wake a trail of death, social paralysis, and economic ruin. Now, as some U.S. states start to lift pandemic-related restrictions on businesses and public spaces, there is a fear that infections will resurge in those places — and that if that happens, the virus won’t stay put.