As spring break travelers return home and the highly transmissible U.K. COVID-19 variant is discovered in all 50 U.S. states, the country is on the verge of a fourth COVID-19 pandemic surge. That's according to a number of health experts, including Dr. Gregory Poland, an infectious diseases expert and head of Mayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group.

However, Dr. Poland says there is some good news related to the transmission of COVID-19 on surfaces.

"Wisdom resides in changing your mind and your recommendations as new data and science becomes available," says Dr. Poland. "What the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is doing is modifying those guidelines, saying that the risk of touching a contaminated surface and then getting infected is very low."

In this Mayo Clinic Q&A podcast Dr. Poland explains more about the CDC guidelines and he addresses other COVID-19 topics in the news, including recent data that says men are more vaccine-hesitant than women.
Research disclosures for Dr. Gregory Poland.