What happened with this virus was this virus first emerged at some point in 2020,

then all of a sudden the trail goes cold and then all of a sudden this virus

re-emerges in November

in this heavily mutated form and it starts spreading very quickly

in South Africa.

So the question is, where was it for over a year?

And that's why this was so surprising, because we thought all the future mutations would be within that delta lineage.

But somewhere in the world was this other strain continuing to mutate and it all of a sudden explodes in South Africa. What are we learning right now about Amakron that has most surprised the scientific community?

What does it tell us about vaccines and where we're heading?

These are among the big questions I have for Dr. Scott Gottlie,

former Commissioner of the FDA, a member of the Pfizer Board, author of the New York Times Best Seller,

Uncontrolled Spread Why COVID-19 crushed us and how we can defeat the next pandemic.

And most importantly, a returning guest of our podcast. This is

call me back. And I'm pleased to welcome back my friend Scott Gottlieb to the podcast a regular a fan favorite for our listeners.

Hey Scott how are you?

Good thanks thanks for having me.

Oh thrilled to have you great to great to have you back on.

Actually, we haven't had you back on since your book Uncontrolled Spread was released.

I've been meaning to get you on about that, was excellent I devoured it we talked a lot about it while you were writing it

It was it was great when I when we were when you were drafting it and then obviously it was received exceptionally well but I didn't expect we'd have a new

variant to talk about when we had you back on. We just thought we'd be talking about your book.

But I want to start with the big question on everyone's mind. The big question

...