The CDC’s announcement yesterday that vaccinated individuals can go unmasked in most situations took many by surprise. First up today, we discuss that and other pandemic news with Dr. Peter J. Hotez, author of Preventing the Next Pandemic.

Then, we’re joined by Mazin Qumsiyeh in Bethlehem and Refaat Alareer in Gaza City for on-the-ground updates on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after a week of escalating Israeli attacks on Gaza.

Peter J. Hotez is dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology & Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine, where he is also the co-director of the Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development and Texas Children’s Hospital Endowed Chair of Tropical Pediatrics. He is the author of several books, most recently Preventing the Next Pandemic: Vaccine Diplomacy in a Time of Anti-science (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021).

Mazin Qumsiyeh is a professor at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities and founding director of the Palestine Institute of Biodiversity and Sustainability. His books include Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human Rights and the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle (Pluto Press, 2004) and Popular Resistance in Palestine: A History of  Hope and Empowerment (Pluto Press, 2011).

Refaat Alareer is a professor of world literature and creative writing at the Islamic University of Gaza and the editor of Gaza Writes Back: Short Stories from Young Writers in Gaza, Palestine (Just World Books, 2014).