Welcome to this special episode of The Podcast by KevinMD, where I interview two infectious disease physicians on the COVID Omicron variant. They share their unique perspective on this threat answer the following questions: How do these early days of the Omicron variant contrast with past variants? What do they think about the travel restrictions? How has the media covered Omicron? What are the best-case and worst-case scenarios? And about Omicron keeps them up at night?

Nahid Bhadelia is an infectious disease physician and founding director, Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases Policy & Research (CEID). She can be reached on Twitter @BhadeliaMD.

Paul Sax is an infectious disease physician and contributing editor, NEJM Journal Watch Infectious Diseases. He can be reached on Twitter @PaulSaxMD.