things. if people are there, we plan on going back to our hotel room. reporter: i think you can really wrap up what a lot of travelers tell me they re feeling by saying it s pent-up demand. they couldn t travel last year. they didn t feel comfortable. so they were planning on doing so this year. we ve been hearing from a lot of people saying they re traveling for the first time since 2019. thank you so much. dr. carlos del rio, executive associate deem of emery university school of meld sin at the grady health system. dr. del rio, let s start big picture here and the overall state of the pandemic. over the last month, new cases up 166%, hospitalizations up 34%, as you know, millions of people traveling, people holding family gatherings, getting ready to celebrate new year s as well. what is your sense in terms of the direction of this pandemic