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Hello and welcome to the edition.

Each week we look at some of the most important and intriguing issues in the week's magazine

with the writers behind them. I'm Laura Prendergast.

This week, many people now say we're in the third wave of

COVID, but how worried should we be? Plus, what will the mood be like as Boris and Biden meet

each other for the first time? And finally, our UFOs now no longer are laughing matter?

First up, many experts say we are now truly in the grips of a third wave.

But what does that mean for our near future?

In our cover story for the magazine this week, mathematician Philip Thomas writes about his

work trying to predict the fallout from the speed of the delta variant.

He joins me now along with Associate Professor in Cellular Microbiology at Reading University, Simon Clark.

Philip, in your piece for the magazine this week, you start by saying that the third wave is here, but that we shouldn't delay our reopening.

Can you start by outlining your argument for listeners?

Yes, indeed.

I've been tracking the R rate for the best part of the last year,

and I've seen it go up and I've seen it go down.

When we started to come out of lockdown for the final time,

what I noticed was that it started rising when we came out of step two. That's the retail opening up,

non-essential so-called retail opening up, on the 12th of April. it started rising at that stage, and it has continued

rising. And it got a bit of a Philip when we moved into step three, the pubs and restaurants

opening, and it continued to rise and went into the critical region above one then, and it has continued rising for the last 14 or so days.

...