I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Monday, December 7th.

With cases, hospitalizations, and deaths spiking nationwide now, more and more drastic shutdown measures are coming to more and more places,

as maybe our only recourse until the vaccines really get out there. Here is Berkeley, California,

public health officer, Dr. Lisa Hernandez, over the weekend.

Until we get through this wave, you should not meet in person with any way you do not live

with, even in a small group and even outdoors with precautions.

If you have a social bubble, it is now popped.

So America, are we ready to pop our social bubbles for a while to prevent the worst of the worst?

Do restaurants and other small businesses really have to close or can they stay open with social distancing?

And are we ready to equitably distribute and to be willing to take the COVID vaccines?

Will Joe Biden's nominees for Health and

Human Services Secretary and CDC Director make a difference? If you haven't heard, he's reportedly

nominating California Attorney General and former Congressman Javier Bicera for HHS and Rochelle Walensky,

Chief of the Infectious Disease Department at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and a Harvard Med School professor, to revive the Centers for Disease Control, which has been so marginalized by President Trump.

And then there's Rudy Giuliani and apparently three state legislatures.

He's exposed before being diagnosed with COVID yesterday,

lawmakers in Michigan, Georgia and Arizona, lots of Rudy hugs and loud droplet spreading,

rooting, talking, hardly ever a Rudy mask. With me now, Dr. Wafa El Soder, epidemiology and

global health professor at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.

She is also director of their center known as ICAP, leading the design, implementation, scale up, and evaluation of large-scale HIV and other public health programs in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

Dr. Elsadar has also been a MacArthur Genius Grant winner for some of that global health work.

It's great to have you again. Welcome back to WNYC, Doctor.

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