system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How exactly do contagious disease's pandemics end?

What I mean by this is that is it possible for the COVID-19 to be contained before vaccines are approved and administered, or is it impossible to contain it without a vaccine? Because once normal life resumes, wont it start to spread again?
gpt
One of three things.

1. The disease is fully contained and erradicated through quarantine.

2. Conditions change such that the pathogen is less infectuous (mutation/environmental changes). It then either dies out or becomes part of a seasonal disease cycle.

3. Herd immunity is established either through a vaccine or natural immunity.