the former surgeon general of the united states dr. jerome adams is a distinguished professor at purdue university. thank you so much for joining us. let get to it. on both sides of the aisle, governors want to move past the pandemic. when you look where we are right now with this thing, with signs things are improving, are we in a place to safely transition from pandemic to endemic? >> we're not there yet and that's a matter of definitions and the actual virus. we have over 2,000 people dying every single day. we know that the longer it takes to get up the hill, it takes that longer to get back down the hill. people should understand there is hope. we're seeing cases going down. we're seeing more and more people get vaccinated so that's critically important. i think we are headed toward a brighter spring, a brighter summer but we have to pick up the pace with vaccinations and boosters. >> i hope you're right. with cases on the decline,