In the current phase of the COVID pandemic, marked by the omicron variant and still-rampant misinformation, we wanted to take stock of where we are, and what the science tells us. On today's show, following World AIDS Day Wafaa El-Sadr, Columbia University professor of epidemiology and medicine and director Columbia World Projects and International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs, draws connections between work tracing and treating HIV and research on coronavirus, including the omicron variant which was discovered in part because of robust sequencing systems in southern Africa.