This week, hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter welcome famed AIDS Researcher Dr. Robert Gallo, co-discoverer of the HIV virus, which led to the first tests and treatments for AIDS. He is Director of the Institute for Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and Co-founder of the Global Virus Network, a consortium of research centers of excellence in 66 countries around the world, a nongovernmental agency collaborating on emerging virus research. Dr. Gallo says their network of scientists knew early in the COVID-19 pandemic that the mRNA vaccines would be effective, but for a limited time, and that boosters will be required until the global outbreak is brought under control. He says it’s too soon to predict the full impact of the omicron variant, but that it is likely to overwhelm many countries.