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 the day before Thanksgiving, and if you thought we'd be taking a holiday break this

week, guess again, we couldn't leave our listeners hanging, even if just for a week.

Before we get started, while we know the COVID-19 pandemic is forcing many of our listeners

to celebrate the holiday in a very different fashion than in years past, all of us here

at CITRAP and the Oster Home Update want to wish you a happy Thanksgiving. Wherever you

are, and whatever you're doing, we hope your celebrations are safe and filled with love,

joy, and kindness.

On this Thanksgiving episode of the Oster Home Update, we're going to take a look at the

current state of the pandemic as the country enters the holiday season and the winter months,

and discuss what those months will look like as cases continue to rise and vaccines begin

to enter the picture. Dr. Oster Home will also discuss what we might learn from the current

lockdowns in Europe, answer listener emails, share our latest celebration of life, and highlight

an act of kindness from the Oster Home Update website.

But first, we'll begin with Dr. Oster Home's welcome and dedication.

Thank you, Chris, and happy Thanksgiving week to all of you. I'm glad you could be with

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