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More than a year into the pandemic much has been learned and insights into this novel type of pandemic and options for control are shaping up. Using a historical lens, we review what we know and still do not know about the ongoing COVID\u201019 pandemic. A pandemic caused by a member of the coronavirus family is a new situation following more than a century of influenza A pandemics. However, recent pandemic threats such as outbreaks of the related and novel deadly coronavirus SARS in 2003 and of MERS since 2012 had put coronaviruses on WHOs blueprint list of priority diseases. Like pandemic influenza, SARS\u2010CoV\u20102 is highly transmissible (<jats:italic>R<\/jats:italic><jats:sub>0<\/jats:sub> ~ 2.5). Furthermore, it can fly under the radar due to a broad clinical spectrum where asymptomatic and pre\u2010symptomatic infected persons also transmit the virus\u2014including children. COVID\u201019 is far more deadly than seasonal influenza; initial data from China suggested a case fatality rate of 2.3%\u2014which would have been on par with the deadly 1918 Spanish influenza. But, while the Spanish influenza killed young, otherwise healthy adults, it is the elderly who are at extreme risk of dying of COVID\u201019. We review available seroepidemiological evidence of infection rates and compute infection fatality rates (IFR) for Denmark (0.5%), Spain (0.85%), and Iceland (0.3%). We also deduce that population age structure is key. SARS\u2010CoV\u20102 is characterized by superspreading, so that ~10% of infected individuals yield 80% of new infections. This phenomenon turns out to be an Achilles heel of the virus that may explain our ability to effectively mitigate outbreaks so far. How will this pandemic come to an end? Herd immunity has not been achieved in Europe due to intense mitigation by non\u2010pharmaceutical interventions; for example, only ~8% of Danes were infected across the 1<jats:sup>st<\/jats:sup> and 2<jats:sup>nd<\/jats:sup> wave. Luckily, we now have several safe and effective vaccines. Global vaccine control of the pandemic depends in great measure on our ability to keep up with current and future immune escape variants of the virus. We should thus be prepared for a race between vaccine updates and mutations of the virus. A permanent reopening of society highly depends on winning that race.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1111\/apm.13141","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,5,1]],"date-time":"2021-05-01T17:10:10Z","timestamp":1619889010000},"page":"408-420","update-policy":"http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1002\/crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":13,"title":["The COVID\u201019 pandemic: key considerations for the epidemic and its control"],"prefix":"10.1111","volume":"129","author":[{"given":"S\u00f8ren","family":"\u00d8rskov","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Science and Environment Roskilde University  Roskilde Denmark"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Bjarke Frost","family":"Nielsen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Niels Bohr Institute (NBI) University of Copenhagen  Copenhagen Denmark"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sofie","family":"F\u00f8ns","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Science and Environment Roskilde University  Roskilde Denmark"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Kim","family":"Sneppen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Niels Bohr Institute (NBI) University of Copenhagen  Copenhagen Denmark"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Lone","family":"Simonsen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Science and Environment Roskilde University  Roskilde Denmark"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"311","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_6_2_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1056\/NEJMp0903906"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_3_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cmi.2020.03.026"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_4_1","unstructured":"https:\/\/www.who.int\/medicines\/ebola\u2010treatment\/WHO\u2010list\u2010of\u2010top\u2010emerging\u2010diseases\/en\/"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_5_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1086\/515616"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_6_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(06)69895-4"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_7_1","unstructured":"https:\/\/experience.arcgis.com\/experience\/aa41b29149f24e20a4007a0c4e13db1d"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_8_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S1473-3099(20)30484-9"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_9_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1371\/currents.RRN1153"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_10_1","unstructured":"https:\/\/www.who.int\/news\u2010room\/commentaries\/detail\/transmission\u2010of\u2010sars\u2010cov\u20102\u2010implications\u2010for\u2010infection\u2010prevention\u2010precautions"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_11_1","unstructured":"https:\/\/www.who.int\/docs\/default\u2010source\/coronaviruse\/situation\u2010reports\/20200306\u2010sitrep\u201046\u2010covid\u201019.pdf?sfvrsn=96b04adf_4"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_12_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1086\/524065"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_13_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/nature03063"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_14_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/cid\/cir007"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_15_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1001\/jama.2020.2648"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_16_1","unstructured":"https:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/368\/bmj.m606\/rr\u20105"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_17_1","unstructured":"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/03\/04\/health\/china\u2010lessons\u2010aylward.html"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_18_1","unstructured":"https:\/\/www.who.int\/docs\/default\u2010source\/coronaviruse\/clinical\u2010management\u2010of\u2010novel\u2010cov.pdf"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_19_1","unstructured":"https:\/\/www.covid.is\/data\u2010old"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_20_1","unstructured":"https:\/\/www.isciii.es\/Noticias\/Noticias\/Paginas\/Noticias\/PrimerosDatosEstudioENECOVID19.aspx?fbclid=IwAR3LuOScys3SZc37J5IdXB95k2LU5SRZ6Ujji583S1NQQPWUNHToNOu8EIA"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_21_1","unstructured":"https:\/\/www.mscbs.gob.es\/profesionales\/saludPublica\/ccayes\/alertasActual\/nCov\/situacionActual.htm"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_22_1","unstructured":"https:\/\/www.ssi.dk\/\u2010\/media\/arkiv\/dk\/aktuelt\/nyheder\/2020\/notat\u2010\u2010\u2010covid\u201019\u2010prvalensundersgelsen.pdf?la=da"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_23_1","unstructured":"https:\/\/files.ssi.dk\/praevalensundersoegelse_runde3"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_24_1","unstructured":"https:\/\/bloddonor.dk\/coronavirus\/"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_25_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1056\/NEJMoa2026116"},{"key":"e_1_2_6_26_1","unstructured":"\u00d8rskovS F\u00f8ns S Haase N Simonsen L.Fokusrapport: M\u00f8rketal;2020. 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