Instead of wiping out Covid-19...

Consider the following paragraph (3rd para in https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/03/health/coronavirus-vaccine-never-developed-intl/index.html?fbclid=IwAR3Weydu7a1YobF0mgHmp1_QI9-x-B6-Ii1u3PHv3ZkbkzwyCjoH-mYgY-8)

Instead of wiping out Covid-19, societies may instead learn to live with it. Cities would slowly open and some freedoms ¹will be returned, but on a short leash, if experts' recommendations are followed. Testing and physical tracing ²will become part of our lives in the short term, but in many countries, an abrupt instruction to self-isolate could come at any time. Treatments may be developed -- but outbreaks of the disease could still occur each year, and the global death toll would continue to tick upwards.

1) The modal verbs "may" and "could" above suggest "maybe..." or "it is possible that..." meaning and they cannot be replaced with "can" in the above paragraph. Am I right?

2) " Would" would sound more natural than ¹will and ²will. Am I right?