Hi everyone, as another holiday season arrives and this year comes to an end, we reflect on how the world of public health has been challenged this past year.

We're thankful to have been able to provide you with this podcast for the last 12 months, and with a new and improved recently launched website.

Donations from listeners like you allow us to continue to be innovative and maintain a full-time seasoned editorial staff dedicated to producing the freely available news resources that you depend on.

To support this podcast and our other news offerings, please visit cidrap.umn.edu forward slash support.

Thank you and happy holidays.

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 CIDRAP 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 CIDRAP News, and I'm your host for these conversations.

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

It was just about three years ago that we started to get reports about a mysterious and deadly respiratory illness spreading throughout China.

The illness, of course, was SARS-CoV-2, and while it spread like wildfire across the globe within a matter of months, China soon seemed to have an under control with a mixture of strict lockdowns, mass testing, and water closures.

Three years and more than 6.6 million deaths later, SARS-CoV-2 is less mysterious but still deadly.

And although much of the world has learned how to live with the virus, China, having dropped the zero COVID policy to his relied on since early 2020, is just now seeing the full impact of the virus.

Of course, we know a little more about what China is experiencing now than we did back in 2019, but the reports are ominous.

On this December 29th episode of the podcast, we're going to talk about what's happening in China, and what impact it might have globally as we assess the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We'll also provide an update on COVID in the US, discuss the latest flu numbers, and provide you with a prediction for the coming year.

And for this final episode of 2022, we'll get an update from Dr. Jenna, the only guest we've ever had in the podcast.

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

Thank you, Chris, and welcome back for all of you who are part of the podcast family to another episode, and to those who might be visiting us for the first time.

We welcome you. We hope that we're able to provide you the kind of information that you find helpful.

Today we're closing out the podcast for 2022 and anticipating the podcast into 2023.

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