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.

On January 21st of last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported

the first US case, but was then called the novel coronavirus. It announced it was expanding

airport health checks for people traveling to the US from Wuhan, China, where the patient

had been traveling and the virus was first detected. There was some hope at that time that

such efforts might, at the very least, slow the spread of the mysterious virus in the United States.

A year later, the nation now stands at more than 24 million confirmed COVID-19 cases

in over 400,000 deaths. And while the wave of infections that has been surging since October

appears to be hitting a plateau, vaccines are being administered, and a new president is promising

a stronger federal response to get the pandemic under control. The emergence of more contagious

coronavirus variants is raising fears that the situation could soon take another turn for the worse.

On this episode of the Oster Home Update, we're going to discuss how the variants could change

the trajectory of the pandemic in the US, and what can be done about it. We'll also discuss the

continuing issues with the vaccine rollout. Answer listener emails about the impact vaccines will

have on coronavirus transmission and honor a life lost during the pandemic. But first, as always,

we'll begin with Dr. Osterholm's welcome and dedication.

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