Join the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism for a free conversation on the latest omicron COVID variant with Dr. Céline Gounder, a leading infectious disease expert, epidemiologist, medical analyst, and host of the COVID podcast “Epidemic.”
So much about this new variant remains unknown, and the scientific chorus keeps hammering the theme of uncertainty, at least until early lab research can furnish more clues. Is omicron more transmissible? Better able to evade our body’s immune responses? Our arsenal of vaccines? Does it readily reinfect people who already had COVID? Does it tend to lead to more or less severe disease than the delta variant? We don’t know quite yet.
The early science will take weeks, even as anecdotal evidence trickles in. Meanwhile, the long list of unknowns poses huge challenges for reporters seeking to report accurately and with nuance amid the information vacuum. In this webinar, we’ll hear from a leading infectious disease expert on what we know and don’t know about this latest variant of concern.
This webinar is free and made possible by The Commonwealth Fund, the National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation, and The California Endowment.