Pondering A New Normal As The Omicron Surge Continues

Short Wave

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🗓️ 11 January 2022

⏱️ 15 minutes

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Summary

The U.S. is experiencing a viral blizzard which will likely continue through January, 2022. The omicron variant's surge is pushing hospitalization rates up across the country and most of the seriously ill are not vaccinated. With likely weeks still to go before infections with this variant reach their peak, the message is get vaccinated and get boosted. Emily Kwong talks to Short Wave regular Allison Aubrey about what researchers know about omicron's severity and how the vaccines are changing health outcomes. They also talk about COVID-19 and children. And, they'll talk about some strategies to figure out how to live with the virus circulating, possibly for years to come.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Shortwave.
0:03.6	From NPR.
0:05.3	Hey Shortwavers, Emily Kwong here with Allison, Aubrey, hi Allison.
0:09.9	Hey Emily, it's good to be here.
0:11.5	So, I was checking my planner to prove to myself that it was true.
0:15.9	We last talked about a month ago, December 14th, when Omokron was detected in a mere 25
0:22.7	states.
0:23.7	A month later, where are we now?
0:25.7	Oh, Emily.
0:26.7	Well, it's been a rather rough month.
0:30.0	Omokron has ushered in record-shattering new number of coronavirus cases.
0:35.0	We are now averaging more than 700,000 per day officially.
0:40.5	This is by far the highest case counts since the start of the pandemic, and the number of
0:44.4	people being hospitalized across the country, including young children is hitting new
0:49.0	highs, too.
0:50.0	Yeah.
0:51.0	Doctors say this surge is different, though a lot of vaccinated folks are testing positive.
0:56.4	Many are either asymptomatic or only have mild symptoms because the vaccines are doing
1:00.6	their job, right?
1:01.6	Yeah, the vaccines do offer protection against serious illness and hospitalization, and the
1:07.2	Biden administration keeps pushing for people to get boosters, and yet with so many cases
1:12.6	amid this surge, many hospitals are in a rough spot right now.
	...

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