You're listening to shortwave from NPR.

All right, so we're taping this on Monday morning, December 13th, and in COVID news, things

are really escalating in the US.

Allison, tell me what you are seeing.

Well, on this morning, there is another milestone to process Emily.

The US is nearing 800,000 deaths that since the start of the pandemic.

As the Delta variant continues to circulate all through the country, hospital admissions

have increased more than 20 percent over the last two weeks, rising sharply in the Northeast

and the Great Lakes region.

And as scientists are learning more about the threat of Omicron, there's debate on whether

to change the definition of fully vaccinated to include a booster shot.

And we're also hitting flu season, right?

The CDC has warned that flu activity, quote, remains low nationally, but continues to increase.

That's exactly right.

Today on the show, we're going to talk about the latest on coronavirus case counts, what's

going on with both Delta and Omicron, and how the flu may intersect with COVID this winter.

I'm Emily Quang, and I'm Allison Aubrey, and you're listening to shortwave, the Daily

Science Podcast from NPR.

All right, Allison, here in the US, we have two variants on our hands, cases from Delta

are rising, and Omicron is spreading.

So what can we reasonably expect to see in the coming weeks?

You know, it's taken less than two weeks since the first case of Omicron was detected here,

...