Hi, I'm Naomi Shaven.

Welcome to Axios Recap, where we cover one big story.

Today is Friday, December 17th, and we're focused on our second year of COVID.

All week, I've been talking with my Axios colleagues about the biggest the biggest stories they covered this year and what they're watching heading into 2022.

Today, I'm speaking with Caitlin Owens, a health care reporter who's covered the pandemic since day one.

In 2021, vaccines were supposed to turn everything around.

We started the year with high expectations that

mass vaccination could bring the pandemic under control. But vaccine hesitancy, anti-vax sentiment,

and variants, specifically Delta and now Omicron have chipped away at our chances of returning to our

pre-pandemic lives. And now we find ourselves heading into what could be a brutal

winter and what will definitely be our third year of COVID. It hasn't all been bad this year, though.

In addition to vaccines going into millions of arms, there was also good news on the antiviral

front. That means there could soon be medicine that COVID patients can take to get better faster.

In a moment, I'll be joined by Caitlin Owens to discuss our expectations for this last year,

the reality of what it was like, and what could be ahead in year three.

I'm joined now by Caitlin Owens, healthcare reporter for Axios.

Hi, Caitlin.

Hey, thanks for having me.

It's almost hard to know where to even start this conversation. As we look back on this year,

this could have been the year of vaccines, but it's also been the year of variants.

And you could make the argument that it's also been a really big year for antivirals.

Just to start with the news in the moment,

...