I'm Hannah Rosen and this is Radio Atlantic.

There's something that happens to me when I see the word COVID in a headline.

My brain freezes.

It's like a tiny background panic that stops me from doing what I want to do, which is

click on the headline, read the story by some smart science writer, find out what's going

on with COVID so I can know how to live my life.

I know a lot of people in this situation.

So today's conversation is there a time to slow down and understand some things, like

some basic things, like this new COVID variant that experts seem concerned about, this updated

vaccine that's about to come out, and the old question of when and where should we mask.

But also, I want to get a broader perspective, because humans and viruses have lived together

for hundreds and thousands of years, and we've only had COVID for a few.

So I'm talking to two Atlantic science writers, Katie Wu and Sarah Zeng.

Hi, Katie.

Hi, good to be here.

Hey, Sarah.

Hey, hello.

Hi, so just this morning I was on a walk with a friend.

I was telling her that we were going to tape this episode about COVID and she says, oh,

my daughter has COVID.

And I bring that up just because anecdotally, it seems like all of a sudden everyone once

again knows someone who has COVID or has tested positive in the last few weeks.

...