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.

Two weeks ago on this podcast, Dr. Ostrome and I discussed the expectation that the World

Health Organization would declare an end to COVID-19 as a public health emergency of international

concern at some point this year, and what that would mean going forward.

Lo and behold, the very next day, the WHO made that declaration, noting that with declining

trends in COVID-19 deaths, hospitalizations, and ICU admissions and high levels of population

immunity, it was time to transition to a long-term management of the pandemic.

Still, WHO Director General Tedros Adnan-Gabrazes issued a word of warning that SARS-CoV-2 is

here to stay and cannot be ignored.

The worst thing any country could do now is to use this news as a reason to let down its

guard, to dismantle the systems it has built, or to send the message to its people that

COVID-19 is nothing to worry about, Tedros said.

While this emergency committee will now cease its work, it is sent a clear message that

countries must not cease theirs.

How we move forward without letting our guard down, and how we prepare for the next pandemic

...