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 been roughly a year since the US was in the midst of its first surge of COVID-19 cases.

In public health and elected officials were just beginning to grapple with how they were going

to control the pandemic. A major component of that struggle was how to maintain virus mitigation

measures and keep people safe without destroying livelihoods, restricting individual freedom,

and affecting people's mental health. It was and has been ever since a difficult balancing

act. A year later, the situation in the US is better. COVID-19 vaccines are rolling out at a

steady pace. Many of our most vulnerable citizens are protected, and the end of the pandemic is in

sight. But new daily infections remain high, and some parts of the country are seeing variant

fueled surges. And so a new balancing act is emerged for public health and elected officials.

How to communicate that things are getting better, that vaccines will bring an end to the pandemic,

but that caution is still needed, even after you're vaccinated. On this April 15th episode,

we're going to discuss that balancing act as we assess the state of the pandemic.

We're also going to look at infection rates in schools, discuss blood clotting issues linked

to two vaccines, and answer a listener question about the vaccine side effects.

And we'll hit the latest act of kindness from an OSTROM update listener.

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