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.

The world is now well into its latest battle with the coronavirus.

With many countries, the US included, in the midst of intense surges of new cases caused

by the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

The number of cases is unlike anything we've seen to date during this pandemic, hospitals

are stretched beyond capacity, and the Omicron variant's impact is being seen on all facets

of our lives.

We're all wondering, as we deal with this viral blizzard, when the clouds will part and

the sun will come out again.

Will the Omicron surge as bad as it is in time bring on better days, or could another variant

upend those hopes?

That's one of the issues we're going to address this week on the podcast, after we get

the latest on the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic here in the United States and around

the world.

We'll also talk about how Omicron is impacting US schools, discuss booster shots, and what

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