I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Friday, March 25th.

Here is the New York backdrop against which Mayor Adams lifted the workplace vaccine mandate for professional athletes and other

performers yesterday. Over the last two weeks, according to the New York Times COVID tracker,

the number of new COVID cases per day in New York State has gone up by 44 percent. Thank you,

Omicron variant, BA2. The number of new cases among New York City

public school students has doubled compared to a month ago, according to the Education News

website, chalkbeat, and its crunching of the data. We'll see if the new spike in cases produces

a new spike in serious cases and deaths. But for the moment, the news about serious disease

is very good around here. The Times COVID tracker says the number of people hospitalized with

COVID is now 30% less than it was two weeks ago in New York State. ICU beds in use for COVID

patients, also down 30% compared to two weeks ago.

And the number of people dying from it is 50% less than two weeks ago.

Just 10 people died statewide from COVID yesterday, according to the Times tracker.

At the peak of Omicron in January, more than 200 New Yorkers were dying per day.

Also right now, Pfizer and Moderna are seeking government approval for fourth vaccine doses for

people. Germany's health minister today called for fourth doses for all people over 70 in that country with

underlying conditions. At the other end of life, Moderna has now released clinical trial results

for children as young as six months old. So there is a lot to talk about. And we'll get a

bicoastal view as joining me now is Dr. Monica Gandhi, MD, and with a master's in

public health to boot, an infectious diseases specialist and professor of medicine at the University

of California, San Francisco. San Francisco has been a national leader in policies to fight COVID

throughout the pandemic, as I think we can say has been New York.

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