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 January 14th, a little more than a month after the Food and Drug Administration authorized

the first COVID-19 vaccine. While that authorization sparked hope that the end of the COVID-19 pandemic

was in sight, the subsequent rollout of COVID-19 vaccines has fallen far short of projections.

In January, wondering just how long it's going to take to get to the level of herd immunity

needed to get to post-pandemic life. Meanwhile, new COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths

continue to climb across the country and the globe as new coronavirus variants spread and take hold.

The warning that things could get worse before they get better appears to have come to fruition.

On this episode of the Oster Home Update, we're going to talk about the domestic and international

trajectory of the pandemic. What role the variants are playing? Take a closer look at these variants

and why they've become so ubiquitous. Discuss the problems with the vaccine rollout and the plans

to ramp it up. Answer a listener email about reactions to the vaccine and highlight some acts of

kindness from the Oster Home Update website. But first, as always, we'll begin with Dr. Oster

Oster Home's welcome and dedication.

Well, thank you, Chris, and welcome to all of you to the podcast for those who may be coming to the

first time. We welcome you to what we call our podcast family. You'll get a dose of how to get

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