As Covid-19 cases surge to record levels and threaten to overwhelm already strained health care systems, Dr. Mark Levine, Vermont’s Commissioner of Health since 2017, continues to parry and navigate through the pandemic storm. 

Vermont has led the nation in vaccination rates, but it has nevertheless endured significant losses. From March 2020 to December 29, 2021, more than 63,000 Vermonters have contracted Covid-19, and 468 people have died from the disease.

“Omicron is an inflection point. We are going to see marked increases in case counts,” says Levine, who was a professor of medicine at the University of Vermont and associate dean for graduate medical education prior to leading the state health department.

In this hour, Levine discusses the contagious new Covid-19 variant, the changing paradigm of tracking the pandemic, and the role of public health in a wide-ranging crisis.