there certain ly is a lot to discuss. joining me right now, dr. ebony hilton, an msnbc medical contributor and dr. peter hotez, codirector for the center for vaccine development and dean of the national school of tropical medicine at baylor college of medicine. hello to you both. dr. hotez, we re learning a lot each day about this new variant. we have some data on its transmissibility and severity. knowing what we know right now, what gives you caution, and what gives you some hope? well, i m looking very closely, lindsey at new york city and washington, d.c.. those are where we re really seeing the first big surge of omicron, the omicron variant, and it s a little distressing, the numbers are really going up in terms of cases on a vertical slope like i haven t seen before through this pandemic, but now the hospitalizations are creeping up. we ve got now a 50% increase in