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 Osterome Update Podcast.

It's been more than four years since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic,

but in many ways it feels like a lifetime.

While the world has in many respects returned to pre-pandemic life, our lives are different,

in good ways and bad ways.

For some of us, working from home now has become the norm.

For others the pandemic has changed our perception of risk and how we relate to our fellow

citizens. There are also millions who are still feeling the physical effects of COVID, months and even years after

their infection.

And of course, there are the countless people who have had to adapt to life without loved ones.

As much as we're trying to put COVID in the rearview mirror, it still remains very visible.

On this April 4th episode, we're going to spend some time talking about how we're living our lives

now, after we examine the latest data

on COVID-19 here in the United States and elsewhere.

...