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From KQED.

From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Nina Kim. Coming up on forum, last December, amid news of effective vaccines and a new administration,

Atlantic science writer Ed Yong tweeted that he was gently hopeful that in 2021, he'd get

to celebrate his 40th birthday in person with a few dozen

friends. But with a highly transmissible Omicron variant, he recently canceled his birthday celebration.

We'll talk to Yom about how he's making risk management decisions and what we're learning

about Omicron, now the dominant variant in the U.S. We'll also preview President Biden's speech today on COVID.

Forum is next. Stay with us.

This is Forum. I'm Mina Kim.

Omicron is now the dominant variant in the U.S. accounting for 73% of new COVID cases last week,

compared with just over 12% of cases the week before. Also, President Biden will address the nation today on his administration's

efforts to contain the damage from this highly transmissible variant. For more on these and other

COVID developments were joined by Atlantic science writer Ed Yong, whose latest piece is,

...