It’s late October, winter is fast-approaching, and there’s one big question on everyone’s mind: What the heck is going on with COVID? Compounding this confusion was President Biden’s declaration that the pandemic was over — despite the fact that the virus is still significantly deadlier than the flu. (This was later walked back, as the public health emergency has been once again extended through January 11.)

Quite the noggin scratcher indeed. To make sense of it all, we’re joined in this episode by Dr. Bob Wachter, a professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. In the early days of the pandemic, Dr. Wachter emerged as a trusted source of accurate information related to COVID due to his matter-of-fact, no-judgement postings on Twitter. Since then, he’s amassed a huge following and to this day he continues to live-tweet the pandemic play-by-play, leveraging his expertise and community of leading medical specialists in order to give the public some of the most accessible, fact-based insights anywhere on the ‘net.

Beyond talking about the current and future state of the pandemic (epidemic?), we also discuss the current precautions he’s taking to remain safe, what it means be both a human being and a doctor at the same time, and the nature of public storytelling in the 21st century.

Follow Dr. Bob Wachter on Twitter at @Bob_Wachter.