The imperative, as President Biden reiterated Tuesday, is to use the tools that work: vaccination, including boosters, the coming antivirals, quality face masks, upgraded ventilation, widespread testing and social distancing. Infections in Georgia are surging and hospital beds filling up, to which the Republican governor, Brian Kemp, pledged additional National Guard troops to hospital and testing sites. But Mr. Kemp criticized Atlanta for reimposing a mask mandate. Vaccines and masks work to save lives and protect individuals as well as the public at large. The new variant is extremely transmissible, and catching it is not much more difficult than breathing in someone’s secondhand cigarette smoke.

Source: Washington Post January 05, 2022 09:03 UTC