that the u.s. would follow a similar path? >> well, i think it will, john. in fact, there are good data today to support there surely are a spectrum of -- of cases with this variant. i think the challenge, though, we have right now is transporting data from one p population to another and saying that's exactly how it's going to work. for example, if you look at the uk, they have a significantly higher vaccination level than we do, so what is the underlying protection that comes from even some vaccination? so i think we are overall optimistic that you will see fewer cases. but again, reminding you the number of cases that are getting infected right now is really unprecedented in any respiratory pathogen i have ever seen and i think that that could surely go the opposite way and say even with fewer severe cases per thousand cases, overall, we may have more people hospitalized than we even did with delta. >> so, dr. wen, you made some waves recently when you said here on cnn that cloth masks were, quote, little more than