It is no secret that COVID-19 has turned society as we know it upside down. With 2021 nearing this begs the question, when will life return to normal?

In an article, Healthline reached out to Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and asked the question many would like the answer to: When will life return to the way it used to be?

“If we can get everyone to pull together and realize we all want to open up the economy, we all want to get people back to work, we all want to get a degree of normality, the best way to do that, as I said many times before and I’ll say it again, is to get that level of infection in the community down,” Fauci said.

Fauci spoke about his discouragement in those who have failed to follow guidelines that help stop the spread of the virus. “When you want people to do the kinds of things that can mitigate against spread and you see people still not doing it, that to me is discouraging,” said Fauci.

The return to a possible version of normal is at this stage of the pandemic still difficult. It is a heavily debated subject that comes with a large number of variables.

In the same interview with Healthline, Fauci stated, “There really is no absolute time I can tell you now unless certain things fall into place. It’s going to depend on the efficacy of the vaccines being tested right now and the uptake in the community of the vaccines.”

Fauci expanded by saying that even if a vaccine was created that it would not necessarily mean the immediate end measures like masks and social distancing.

“If we could get the majority of the community to adopt health measures together with a reasonably effective vaccine, then we could get the level of infection down so low in the community that by the third quarter end of 2021 we could start thinking in terms of normal,” said Fauci.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has also joined the discussion on when things will go back to normal. “In the very best case, two years from now, you would be, for some of the health things in particular, ideally back at where you were at the beginning of 2020,” Gates said in an interview with New York Magazine’s Intelligencer.

Again, in this scenario, a vaccine is one of the main variables pending the success of this progress. “If we’re lucky enough that several of these vaccines work, including ones that are low cost enough that we can scale the manufacturing,” said Gates.

Regardless of vaccination experts like Fauci encourage citizens to participate in health guidelines such as masking, social distancing and avoiding large gatherings.

“The only way you get down in the absence of a vaccine is by public health measures. You know it’s not rocket science. It’s pretty obvious and it’s been proven times and again,” said Fauci in a Healthline interview. “If we want normal, we need to make that our normal for now.”