
The Big Question: What Kind of Immunity Will Omicron Provide? (with Bill Hanage)
02/02/22 • 55 min
4 Listeners
Andy explores what Omicron means for immunity with Harvard epidemiologist Bill Hanage. Andy and Bill tackle what we know about the kind of immunity Omicron may provide against future variants, what role layered immunity will play moving forward, and why we shouldn't count Delta out just yet. While you listen, see if you can catch all the literary and Arsenal F.C. references Bill skillfully slides into the conversation.
Keep up with Andy on Twitter @ASlavitt and Instagram @andyslavitt.
Follow Bill @BillHanage on Twitter.
Joining Lemonada Premium is a great way to support our show and get bonus content. Subscribe today at bit.ly/lemonadapremium.
Support the show by checking out our sponsors!
- Click this link for a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this show and all Lemonada shows: https://lemonadamedia.com/sponsors/
- Throughout the pandemic, CVS Health has been there, bringing quality, affordable health care closer to home—so it’s never out of reach for anyone. Because at CVS Health, healthier happens together. Learn more at cvshealth.com.
Check out these resources from today’s episode:
- Read Bill’s recent guest essay in The New York Times about Omicron and immunity: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/19/opinion/omicron-covid-surge.html
- Check out the Household Pulse Survey estimates of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy: https://data.cdc.gov/stories/s/Vaccine-Hesitancy-for-COVID-19/cnd2-a6zw/
- Find a COVID-19 vaccine site near you: https://www.vaccines.gov/
- Order Andy’s book, Preventable: The Inside Story of How Leadership Failures, Politics, and Selfishness Doomed the U.S. Coronavirus Response: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250770165
Stay up to date with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia.
For additional resources, information, and a transcript of the episode, visit lemonadamedia.com/show/inthebubble.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Andy explores what Omicron means for immunity with Harvard epidemiologist Bill Hanage. Andy and Bill tackle what we know about the kind of immunity Omicron may provide against future variants, what role layered immunity will play moving forward, and why we shouldn't count Delta out just yet. While you listen, see if you can catch all the literary and Arsenal F.C. references Bill skillfully slides into the conversation.
Keep up with Andy on Twitter @ASlavitt and Instagram @andyslavitt.
Follow Bill @BillHanage on Twitter.
Joining Lemonada Premium is a great way to support our show and get bonus content. Subscribe today at bit.ly/lemonadapremium.
Support the show by checking out our sponsors!
- Click this link for a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this show and all Lemonada shows: https://lemonadamedia.com/sponsors/
- Throughout the pandemic, CVS Health has been there, bringing quality, affordable health care closer to home—so it’s never out of reach for anyone. Because at CVS Health, healthier happens together. Learn more at cvshealth.com.
Check out these resources from today’s episode:
- Read Bill’s recent guest essay in The New York Times about Omicron and immunity: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/19/opinion/omicron-covid-surge.html
- Check out the Household Pulse Survey estimates of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy: https://data.cdc.gov/stories/s/Vaccine-Hesitancy-for-COVID-19/cnd2-a6zw/
- Find a COVID-19 vaccine site near you: https://www.vaccines.gov/
- Order Andy’s book, Preventable: The Inside Story of How Leadership Failures, Politics, and Selfishness Doomed the U.S. Coronavirus Response: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250770165
Stay up to date with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia.
For additional resources, information, and a transcript of the episode, visit lemonadamedia.com/show/inthebubble.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Previous Episode

Safe or Not Safe: What Omicron Changed
Omicron came and flipped everything we thought we knew about how to act during COVID up in the air. It also made another edition of Safe or Not Safe necessary. This time around, Andy brings in two new contestants, epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina and former guest host Dr. Bob Wachter, to answer your questions about indoor dining, outdoor transmission, and how to keep kids under five and those who are immunocompromised as safe as possible. After you finish listening, head over to Twitter and tell Andy who you think won: #TeamKatelyn or #TeamBob.
Keep up with Andy on Twitter @ASlavitt and Instagram @andyslavitt.
Follow Katelyn @dr_kkjetelina and Bob @Bob_Wachter on Twitter.
Joining Lemonada Premium is a great way to support our show and get bonus content. Subscribe today at bit.ly/lemonadapremium.
Support the show by checking out our sponsors!
- Click this link for a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this show and all Lemonada shows: https://lemonadamedia.com/sponsors/
- Throughout the pandemic, CVS Health has been there, bringing quality, affordable health care closer to home—so it’s never out of reach for anyone. Because at CVS Health, healthier happens together. Learn more at cvshealth.com.
Check out these resources from today’s episode:
- Check out all the organizations that In the Bubble’s host profits have gone to: World Central Kitchen, Navajo & Hopi Relief Fund, Central Valley Community Foundation, Safer Foundation, Sakina Halal Grill, YWCA Minneapolis, Get Us PPE, Still Kickin, Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi, Survivor Corps, International Rescue Committee, Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium, and Invisible Hands Deliver
- Check out all of Katelyn’s posts on her Your Local Epidemiologist Substack: https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/
- Read more on the likelihood of getting long COVID if you’re vaccinated, using data out of Israel: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00177-5
- Here’s more on what Israel is learning about a 4th dose of the mRNA vaccines: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/25/world/europe/israel-fourth-covid-dose.html
- Find a COVID-19 vaccine site near you: https://www.vaccines.gov/
- Order Andy’s book, Preventable: The Inside Story of How Leadership Failures, Politics, and Selfishness Doomed the U.S. Coronavirus Response: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250770165
Stay up to date with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia.
For additional resources, information, and a transcript of the episode, visit lemonadamedia.com/show/inthebubble.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Next Episode

Breaking COVID News (with Dan Diamond)
Andy turns the tables on award-winning Washington Post journalist Dan Diamond, who has covered health care policy (and Andy) since the Obama administration, and asks him about COVID and the media. Andy and Dan talk about what it's like reporting on the Biden administration after covering the Trump administration, if Andy considers himself a member of the media, and Andy's appearance as Dan's debut guest on his old podcast Pulse Check. Keep an ear out for the moments where the two of them slip back into their more familiar roles, Dan as interviewer and Andy as interviewee.
Keep up with Andy on Twitter @ASlavitt and Instagram @andyslavitt.
Follow Dan @ddiamond on Twitter.
Joining Lemonada Premium is a great way to support our show and get bonus content. Subscribe today at bit.ly/lemonadapremium.
Support the show by checking out our sponsors!
- Click this link for a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this show and all Lemonada shows: https://lemonadamedia.com/sponsors/
- Throughout the pandemic, CVS Health has been there, bringing quality, affordable health care closer to home—so it’s never out of reach for anyone. Because at CVS Health, healthier happens together. Learn more at cvshealth.com.
Check out these resources from today’s episode:
- Read all of Dan’s reporting for The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/dan-diamond/
- Listen to the first episode of Pulse Check, Dan’s former podcast, featuring Andy: https://politicos-pulse-check.simplecast.com/episodes/andy-slavitt-on-how-cms-will-win-doctors-1436ca4d
- Check out Dan’s POLITICO story about how Trump changed HHS: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/31/how-trump-warped-hhs-452964
- Find a COVID-19 vaccine site near you: https://www.vaccines.gov/
- Order Andy’s book, Preventable: The Inside Story of How Leadership Failures, Politics, and Selfishness Doomed the U.S. Coronavirus Response: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250770165
Stay up to date with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia.
For additional resources, information, and a transcript of the episode, visit lemonadamedia.com/show/inthebubble.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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