covid. jacinda ardern will remain in isolation through tuesday after being exposed to an infected person. and thousands turned out in the czech republic to protest against covid restrictions as cases hover around record highs. joining us now is ann remoyn, a professor at the school of immunology at the ucla fielding school of public health. thanks for being with us. let's start with this new version of the omicron variant called ba.2. it's showing up in nearly 50 countries including the u.s. and is apparently more contagious but less severe than the original omicron variant. what more are you learning about this and how concerned should we all be? >> it's not surprising that we're starting to see another variant arise and to start taking over. this variant appears to be more contagious than the original variant of omicron.