fewer hospitalizations. i want to point you to the study in south africa. it said that just over 2% of people who got omicron were admitted to the hospital in october and november, compared to nearly 13% who contracted delta. south african health officials have warned that this data should not be extrapolated to other countries. but what do you say to people who are saying that this makes this version of covid more comparable to the average flu? >> it may be more comparable to the average flu to somebody who's vaccinated and boosted. here's the problem. we don't yet have a handle on what the factors are that have contributed to the apparent decrease in hospitalization. and we've seen it not just in south africa. we've seen it in london. and now we're also seeing it in places like new york. and how much of that is due to some intrinsic change in the virus that makes it less likely to infect the lower respiratory tract, the lungs, versus how much of the reduction in