Hello and welcome to the Ostrome Update COVID-19, a podcast on the COVID-19 pandemic with

Dr. Michael Ostrome.

Dr. Ostrome is an internationally recognized medical detective and director of the Center

for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, or CITRAP, at the University of Minnesota.

In this podcast, Dr. Ostrome will draw on more than 45 years of experience investigating

infectious disease outbreaks to provide straight talk on the COVID-19 pandemic.

I'm Chris Dahl, reporter for CITRAP News, and I'm your host for these conversations.

Welcome back everyone to another episode of the Ostrome Update podcast.

As we near the end of April, US COVID-19 cases are climbing once again, but in many respects,

the pandemic trends are positive.

The increase in cases appears to be a fraction of what we saw with the initial Omicron wave,

hospitalizations remain at their lowest level since the early days of the pandemic, and

COVID-19 deaths continue to decline.

While there's no guarantee those trends will continue, there is hope in some quarters

that the country is entering an area in which COVID is much more manageable.

There will be one of the topics of discussion here on this April 28th episode of the podcast,

as we assess the state of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US and around the world, while also

providing update on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, talk about the Biden administration's effort

to make COVID-19 treatments more available, answer a COVID query about the fourth dose

of COVID-19 vaccines, and share the latest beautiful place submission from one of our listeners.

But before we get started, as always, we'll begin with Dr. Ostrome's opening comments and

dedication.

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