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.

They say all good things must come to an end, and that statement could apply to the COVID-19

situation here in the United States.

After several weeks of decline in plateau, the National Seven Day Average of Code in 19

cases has begun to tick upward, driven mainly at this point by rising BA2 infections in

Northeastern states.

The increase at this point appears to be small, and how much cases will rise over the coming

weeks is still unclear, but the arrow is nonetheless headed in the wrong direction.

Meanwhile, although many nations in the Western Pacific region are continuing to decline

from their Omicron peaks, China remains a house on fire, and the government's zero COVID

approach appears to be wearing on the public.

Those will be among the topics of discussion here on this April 14th episode of the podcast,

as we assess the state of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States and around the world.

We'll also talk about some of the latest news on fourth doses of COVID-19 vaccines,

and through a COVID query about rapid home testing, and share the latest beautiful place

...