 So, currently, as it stands right now in the United States, things are looking pretty good when it comes to COVID-19. New cases are down, hospitalizations are down, deaths are also down substantially, so this is all really encouraging to see. And as a result of the sharp decline in cases following the Omicron Surge, states have begun to ease up on what little restrictions they had left in place. For example, in my state of Oregon, we just dropped the mask mandate as of the 11th. And if you just ended the video right now, you'd come away feeling pretty optimistic about the pandemic thinking that it might be over soon. But that's unfortunately not the reality because there are some early indications that we may be expecting another wave. Don't shoot the messenger. This is just what the experts are saying. And it's not a foregone conclusion yet. I hope that this isn't indeed the case. But I would rather mentally prepare myself than kind of just be ambushed with a new wave and feel the depression that would come along with that. But regardless, let's look at why experts are saying we might want to buckle up for another wave here in the United States. As Lenny Bernstein, Angel Eckenbach of the Washington Post explained, a surgeon coronavirus infections in Western Europe has experts and health authorities on alert for another wave of the pandemic in the United States, even as most of the country has done away with restrictions after a sharp decline in cases. Infectious disease experts are closely watching the sub variant of Omicron, known as BA2, which appears to be more transmissible than the original strain, BA1, and is fueling the outbreak overseas. Germany, a nation of 83 million people, saw more than 250,000 new cases and 249 deaths Friday when Health Minister Carl Lauterbach called the nation's situation critical. The country is allowing most coronavirus restrictions to end Sunday. Despite the increase, the United Kingdom had a seven-day average of 65,894 cases and 79 deaths as of Sunday, according to the John Hopkins University Coronavirus Research Center. The Netherlands, home to fewer than 18 million people, was averaging more than 60,000 cases the same day. In all, about a dozen nations are seeing spikes in coronavirus infections caused by BA2, a cousin of the BA1 form of the virus that tore through the United States over the past three months. In the past two years, a widespread outbreak like the one now being seen in Europe has been followed by a similar surge in the United States some weeks later. Many, but not all, experts interviewed for this story predicted that this is likely to happen. China and Hong Kong, on the other hand, are experiencing rapid and severe outbreaks, but the strict zero COVID policies they have enforced make them less similar to the United States than Western Europe. OK, so long story short, it's happening in Europe, and whatever happens in Europe usually happens in the United States a couple of weeks later. So before you get all down and doom and gloom, there's a couple of things to keep in mind. A couple of reasons for some hope, right? First and foremost is that if there is a new wave, we don't know how big this wave will be. You know, it might not be as big as previous waves. It could just be a small spike. We don't know yet. Second of all, currently in the United States, more people are vaccinated than ever. Some people have natural immunity. Some have natural immunity and are vaccinated. And the good news is that if you have been infected with Omicron, will the likelihood of you being infected with BA2 is actually pretty low. It's not impossible. Reinfection is possible if you did have Omicron, but it's uncommon. So that's something that's important to keep in mind. Now I'm going to link you to an article from CNBC. This is about two weeks old by now, so just keep that in mind. But they kind of go over all that we know about the BA2 sub variant of Omicron. So it is more contagious than the original Omicron variant, obviously, but it doesn't seem to be more severe than Omicron. So there's that. But I mean, I'm not sharing this with you to get you down. I hope that you take away from this just the idea that this is possible. And I think that most of us aren't naive. We all kind of assumed that this was a possibility. I mean, BA2 has been in circulation in the United States. So this wasn't necessarily something that I ruled out, but just seeing the sharp decrease in cases in the United States gave me hope. It made me kind of feel as if things were getting back to normal for a little bit. And that's not to say that because of this, the mask mandates will automatically come back. I think that at this point, there's no political will in the country to do anything with regard to COVID-19, even the most convenient mitigation measures such as mask mandates. But I'd imagine if there was an uptick, some states might temporarily reintroduce mask mandates, although I don't expect them to do that right after they ended. So we'll see things would have to probably get pretty bad. But at this point, I think that most people in the country have just moved on from COVID-19. And I'm certainly feeling COVID fatigue. And I hope that this isn't going to be a huge wave. We don't know, though. I think that what worries me more than this is the prospect of an all-new variant. But there's no sense in catastrophizing about what may or may not happen. We have to take it one day at a time. There's more than enough things to worry about in the world. And so, when I tell you this news, it's not to make you depressed or make you feel down. I just want you to mentally prepare yourself. Because for me, when it comes to things like this, I think that if I have expectations that things will get to normal and something bad happens, it usually gets me more down. But if I have some time to mentally prepare myself for something, then I feel like I come out better. And maybe that's just me. But perhaps this will be useful for you as well. But just look, keep this in the back of your mind, right? Don't worry about it. Don't freak out about it. Just acknowledge that there is a possibility that we might see a wave or maybe just a slight uptick in cases. But don't be surprised by it. Don't let it catch you off guard. Just know that this is a possibility. And it's just the reality of living through a pandemic. A lot of us want to assume that it's over, but it's not over yet. And is it on its way out? It still very may well be the case that we're in the end stage of the pandemic. But still, things like this are likely to happen. So we just have to take it day by day and play it by ear. I'm crossing my fingers that this doesn't happen. I'm hoping that the experts are wrong here, but we'll just have to wait and see. It is what it is.