More than two years after the WHO declared a global pandemic, things are starting to look pretty normal here in the U.S. In many places, mask mandates have been lifted — and physical distancing is all but gone. 

This comes after a winter marked by COVID surges across the U.S. due largely to the highly contagious omicron variant. The number of cases has since steadied here, but that’s not the situation elsewhere in the world.

In China, part of the country has been put into lockdown after a fourfold jump in cases in a week. The U.K., Germany, Switzerland, and Italy also all saw surges in cases over the past week — fueling concerns that another global wave could be on the way.  

For more on this, The Takeaway spoke with Rebecca Weintraub, an assistant professor of global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School.