how concerned are you about these variants right now? ana, i m really concerned. what we saw with the uk what we now call the alpha variant is it spread rapidly, first through europe causing surges in europe, we were somewhat insulated from that here in the united states because we were farther along in our vaccination rollout but we saw a surge in some of those midwestern states, michigan, illinois, minnesota, for example, and this new indian delta variant is even more infectious. you could think of it as even faster moving than the uk alpha variant. so for people who are not vaccinated yet, this really does remain a very serious threat. doctor celine gounder, thank you and stay with us as we re expecting the president any moment now to address the global vaccine rollout and the covid response, so look forward to talking to you more about that after his remarks. okay, moving on to the