Hello and welcome to the Oster Home Update, COVID-19, a weekly podcast on the COVID-19

pandemic with Dr. Michael Oster Home. Dr. Oster Home 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. Oster Home 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 Doll, reporter for CITRAP News.

I'm your host for these conversations.

It's July 22nd and coronavirus infections, hospitalizations, and deaths are continuing

to spike around the country. According to The New York Times, yesterday was the first day

since early June that the country reported more than 1,000 COVID-19 deaths in a single day.

The surge in cases is prompting new calls for mask mandates and shutdowns, and we're

one week closer to the beginning of the school year, which for some of the hard-hit

states in the south is just around the corner. We're going to talk about the current situation

in the United States and the challenge of reopening schools in the face of widespread

community transmission on this episode of the Oster Home Update. We'll also discuss more

masks studies, the nation's continuing problems with testing, and answer a listener email

on herd immunity. But first, Dr. Oster Home will start with his weekly dedication.

Well, thank you very much, Chris, and thank you all for being with us again, as I've said

before, and continue to say that we sure appreciate you spending time with us. We know you have

many different choices for getting your information on this, and so thank you for being a part

of this. This week in the continuation of our, we'll look at schools reopening schools

and how we're going to try to accomplish that. I think it's only appropriate to dedicate

...