Today is Saturday, December 4th.

The Omicron variant of the coronavirus is now officially here in the United States,

and spreading around the world.

But there are still a lot of questions about it.

So today, we hope to help clarify what scientists do and don't know about this variant right now,

and when we can expect to get more answers.

I'm talking with infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist Dr. Celine Gounder.

She's a practicing physician in New York City and has been a trusted voice throughout the pandemic.

She's the host of the epidemic and American diagnosis podcast,

and has even advised the White House about COVID-19.

Here's our conversation about variants, Omicron, and what to expect next in this pandemic.

Welcome, welcome to The Newsworthy Special Edition Saturday,

when we sit down with a different expert or celebrity every Saturday to talk about something in

the news. Don't forget to tune in every Monday through Friday for our regular episodes,

where we provide all the day's news in 10 minutes.

I'm Air Commandy, it's now time for today's Special Edition Saturday.

Dr. Celine Gounder, thank you for coming on The Newsworthy.

It's great to be here. So before we get into the specifics of the Omicron variant,

can you briefly help people understand why we have different variants of COVID-19 in the first place?

Well, every time the virus transmits from one person to another and then replicates, it mutates.

And then some of those mutant viruses go on to survive and spread from person to person,

and some of those go on to be variants that spread throughout the population.

...