Thank you for joining us for episode 24 of OccPod, the official podcast of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. This episode continues the COVID Conversations series, which is dedicated to sharing the latest COVID-19 news, and frame conversations through the lens of science with a focus on OEM, or occupational and environmental medicine.

In this episode, Erin, Dr. Nabeel, and Dr. Berenji discuss the Omicron variant. On November 24, South Africa reported the identification of a new SARS-CoV-2 variant, B.1.1.529, to the World Health Organization (WHO). B.1.1.529 was first detected in specimens collected on November 11 in Botswana and on November 14 in South Africa. As millions of Americans plan to travel across the country to celebrate the holiday season, the COVID Conversations team discusses the likelihood of transmission, current protection offered by vaccination, and other salient information related to variants of the virus. As always, thank you for joining us for another episode of OccPod: COVID Conversations. We hope you enjoy!