Hello and welcome to the Ostrome Update COVID-19, a podcast on the COVID-19 pandemic with

Dr. Michael Ostrome.

Dr. Ostrome 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. Ostrome 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 Dahl, reporter for CITRAP News, and I'm your host for these conversations.

Welcome back everyone to another episode of the Ostrome Update Podcast.

Over the past month, Dr. Ostrome has been talking about how the Omurcon variant will fuel

a viral blizzard, the likes of which we've never seen before in modern times.

And while we knew the blizzard was on its way, and that no part of the United States is

going to be spared, it's really been over the past week or so that the country has started

to feel the brunt of it.

And boy are we feeling it.

Nationwide, the seven day average of new daily infections is now more than three times

the peak of last winter.

And no Omurcon is believed to cause less severe illness, hospitalizations are at an all-time

high as well, with many hospital systems across the country starting to crack.

Meanwhile, we're also seeing the impact of Omurcon infections everywhere we look, from

schools to public transportation systems, male delivery, and businesses.

This week on the podcast, we're going to discuss the impact that Omurcon is having here

in the United States and elsewhere, and how much worse things might get before they get

...