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.

Over the course of the coronavirus pandemic, in our efforts to bring you the latest on the

science and data behind COVID-19, one of the things we've tried to do on this podcast is

avoid too much discussion of politics. It hasn't often been easy, as science and politics have

often been intertwined. And it's become more difficult with the news that President Trump and

the First Lady, along with several other White House staff members, have tested positive for COVID-19.

The coronavirus is now not only the biggest health story in the world, but it's the biggest

political story. So on this October 8th episode of the Oster Home Update, we're going to spend

some time talking about the White House outbreak and what lessons we can learn from it,

aiming as we always do to focus on the science. What does it tell us about risk,

about how the virus spreads, and about the role of testing? We'll also discuss how politicians,

from the presidential candidates to those running for other offices, should think about campaigning

in the weeks before Election Day. We'll also address the CDC's new position on airborne transmission,

and answer listener emails on voting during the pandemic. But before we get to all of that,

I want to let our listeners know that next week's episode of the podcast will stream live on YouTube

on Tuesday, October 13th at 7pm Central 8pm Eastern. And you can participate by asking questions

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