From WB Easy Chicago, this is Nerdette. I'm Greta Johnson. We made it to another weekend.

This week we're doing something a little different, but it's probably going to be familiar

if you've been listening to the show for a while, if you have been tuning in to Nerdette

over the past, you know, say, year and a half. You know, we like to check in with Emily

Landon every couple of months. We call Emily our resident epidemiologist, but her real

job is that she's an infectious disease specialist at the University of Chicago. She always helps

me feel a little less overwhelmed by what's going on with the pandemic, and we hope the

same goes for y'all listening as well. We have questions. We know you have questions.

We actually heard from a lot of you this time around. I feel like half my social media feed

is people freaking out about the variance. What's the deal with the move, variance? What

the heck does mid-to-late winter mean anyway? Any advice you have that could shed some

light would really, really appreciate it. Here, hopefully with some answers is Nerdette's

resident epidemiologist, Dr. Emily Landon. Emily, welcome. Hey, everybody. It's great

to be back. It's so funny. I do feel like you're just a friend who I check in with now.

I feel the same. Let's keep doing this. Maybe without the pandemic. Yeah, that would be

really nice. So we asked Nerdette listeners to send in their questions. We got a lot

of really good ones. But first, last time you and I talked us for a little level set was

in the middle of May. It was right after the CDC said the vaccinated people didn't need

to wear masks and doors. A lot has changed since then. I know last time we talked to you

had plans to go to Hawaii and Puerto Rico, were you able to make those trips happen?

I did. I went to Puerto Rico, if my phone just would have been extended weekend. It was

great. We didn't do a ton of stuff. We mostly sat by the pool and now at the resort, but

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