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.

Last week, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services

announced an H5N1 Avian influenza case in a Michigan farm worker who had regular exposure to infected livestock.

It marked the second human case in the US related to the H5N1 outbreaks in dairy cattle, and it was just one of several updates

in the evolving H5N1 story.

Meanwhile, in Singapore, health officials announced that they were closely monitoring a rise in COVID-19 cases that appear to be driven by variants with flirt mutations.

And it's not the only country that's seeing COVID-upticks.

Those are the two items we're going to lead with on this May 30th episode of the

podcast. We'll follow that up with a look at the latest news on long COVID, an update on

the surge in measles cases across Europe, and a conversation about the ongoing negotiations on a plan for how the world will fight the next pandemic.

We'll also answer an ID query about what the H and the N stand for in influenza designations and bring you the latest

installment of this week in public health history. But before we get

started we'll begin with Dr Ostrom's opening comments and dedication.

Thanks, Chris, and welcome back to the podcast family for another episode.

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