several weeks typically ahead of what we re seeing in the u.s. in a covid surge there on tuesday, the uk reported more than 90,000 new coronavirus cases. and 172 deaths. the country also reported more than 15,000 additional confirmed cases of the omicron variant. joining us now infectious disease and global health expert at the university of oxford, dr. peter drobak. good to have you with us. i want to pick up, i hope you can hear dr. mccain at the end there, she said she s worried this surge in the u.s. and where she is in texas could be worse than what we saw last winter. she calls it a recipe for disaster. based on what you re seeing, do you think that s coming at us? yeah, i share those concerns. thank you for having me, by the way. there is so much uncertainty about what s going to happen. there are a lot of reasons to be concerned. we know for sure about this variant, it is incredibly transmissible. each infected person infects five other people, which is much