Our long-held pandemic fears that an even more terrifying variant was somewhere in the offing seem to have come true with the arrival of Omicron and its myriad mutations. But we also risk jumping the gun. 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. Celine Gounder, a leading epidemiologist, medical analyst and host of the COVID podcast “Epidemic,” will brief us on the latest research, clarify what we still don’t know, and help us think through where the pandemic takes us from here.