We’re so much better off this year than last year – so far
Thanksgiving was a wonderful respite with extended family members this year – our first in two years. Our gathering, and others like it across the country, came as things have been looking up – something we wrote about for the weekend paper.
But make no mistake: We still need masks in public places.
We got news the day after Thanksgiving of a new COVID-19 variant with an unusual number of mutations. The World Health Organization’s scientists have dubbed the evolved bug the Omicron variant, and they say preliminary evidence suggests it may mean yet another “increased risk of reinfection.”
We hope not. But we applaud the U.S and other countries for acting quickly to restrict travel from South Africa and seven other countries where it’s found. Here’s hoping the U.S. continues to see better news than that of 2020.
– Pam Sohn, editor, Chattanooga Times opinion page, psohn@timesfreepress.com
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