This winter's U.S. COVID surge is fading fast, likely thanks to a 'wall' of immunity - WUSF Public Media

"I think the worst of the winter resurgence is over," says Dr. David Rubin, who's been tracking the pandemic at the PolicyLab at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

So there were big fears of hospitals getting completely overwhelmed again, with many people getting seriously ill and dying.

And it seems to defy gravity or logic sometimes," says Michael Osterholm, who heads the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

"I'm glad to say that we didn't have as much of a crush of infections as many thought was possible, which is very welcome news," says Jennifer Nuzzo, who heads the Pandemic Center at Brown University.

One possibility could be that people avoided crowds, wore a mask and took other precautions morethan public health experts had expected they would.

Another wave of flu could still hit this year, public health experts note, and the risk continues that yet another new, even more dangerous variant of SARS-CoV-2 could emerge.