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.

As the calendar turns to May, the world seems to be experiencing a tale of two pandemics.

On the one hand, you have countries like the United States and the United Kingdom and Israel,

where vaccines are being steadily rolled out, cases are on the decline,

and the light at the end of the tunnel is becoming clearer every day. On the other, you have

India and South America, which are in the midst of the darkest period of the pandemic.

What do these two trajectories tell us about the future of COVID-19?

And what about the fact that 83% of the COVID-19 vaccine doses administered so far have been in

high and upper middle-income countries? Those are some of the topics we'll be discussing on this

May 6th episode of the Oster Home Update, as we look at what's happening here in the United States

and around the world. We'll also examine the status of coronavirus variants, discuss declining

vaccination numbers in the U.S. and the ongoing challenge of vaccine hesitancy, revisit a list

of our questions from last week's episode, and highlight another pandemic-active kindness.

But first, we'll begin with Dr. Rose Drums, opening comments and dedication.

Thank you, Chris. It's great to be back with everyone again. I appreciate so very much you

spending time with us. As I say, every week and mean most sincerely, we know that you have many

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