The global coronavirus pandemic is not going return in the summer or fall in a second wave, because it just remains "one very, very difficult forest fire" burning on, according to Michael Osterholm, University of Minnesota infectious disease expert.
"I don't see this slowing down through the summer or end of the fall," Osterholm told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday. "I don't think we're going to see one, two, and three waves. I think we're going to just see one very, very difficult forest fire of cases."
Osterholm's comments to host Chuck Todd come after an April warning the virus would infect Americans in waves, but now he has surmised the COVID-19 outbreak operates different than the seasonal flu.
"Where you traditionally see that first wave, a period of a trough where very few cases occur, and then suddenly a flare-up of a second wave, I'm actually of the mind right now, I think this is more like a forest fire," Osterholm said. "I don't think that this is going to slow down. I'm not sure that the influenza analogy applies anymore.
"I think that wherever there is wood to burn, this fire is going to burn, and right now we have a lot of susceptible people."
Osterholm does admit the United States cannot stay sheltered amid the pandemic and the Trump administration focus on testing and contract tracing can work to put out fires, as Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told Newsmax TV earlier this month.
"We can't shut down our economy, but we just can't suddenly say, we're done with it," Osterholm said. "This virus is operating on its own time, under its own rules – not at anything we impose on it."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.