Moving Beyond a Peak Mentality: Plateaus, Shoulders, Oscillations and Other ‘Anomalous’ Behavior-Driven Shapes in COVID-19 Outbreaks

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused more than 1,000,000 reported deaths globally, of which more than 200,000 have been reported in the United States as of October 1, 2020. Public health interventions have had significant impacts in reducing transmission and in averting even more deaths. Nonetheless, in many jurisdictions the decline of cases and fatalities after apparent epidemic peaks has not been rapid. Instead, the asymmetric decline in cases …