Hello and welcome to the Osterholm update, a podcast on COVID-19 and other infectious diseases with Dr Michael Osterholm.

Dr Ostrom is an internationally recognized medical detective and director of the Center for

Infectious Disease Research and Policy or or Sidrapp at the University of Minnesota.

In this podcast, Dr. Ostrom draws on nearly 50 years of experience investigating

infectious disease outbreaks to provide straight talk on the latest infectious disease

and public health threats.

I'm Chris Dahl, reporter for Sidrapp News,

and I'm your host for these conversations.

Welcome back everyone to another episode of the Ostorm Update Podcast.

As we wade into the new year, the rapid rise of SARS-COV2 sub-varyant JAN1 is reminding us that COVID-19 is still very much

with us.

Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that test positivity

is tracking higher than at the same time last year,

while wastewater data suggests that we could be in the midst of the biggest wave of infections

after the omicron surge.

COVID hospitalizations and deaths are also up. The good news. surge. Still, with flu activity on the rise and RSV levels still high, there's a lot of respiratory

illness out there, and our low vaccination levels across the board suggest we're not

doing enough to protect ourselves.

On this January 11th episode of the podcast, we'll provide some more detail on what's going

on as we dig into the latest data on COVID flu and RSV.

We'll also provide an update on JN1, discuss the low uptake of the COVID antiviral drug

Pex Lova, dissect claims made about the COVID-19 vaccines by Florida's Surgeon General, and

...