Last year at this time, vaccines developed to curtail the COVID-19 pandemic began leaving production facilities heading to distribution centers around the country. This week, the omicron variant crossed the milestone of 1 million infections per day, surpassing the delta variant as the predominant strain of the virus, and driving the positivity rate in most of Florida’s counties to above 30%. When Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson released thousands of truckloads last year, we had the cure within our control. Instead, the vaccine became a political chit rather than good public policy. It didn’t have to be this way.
Originally posted for the Orlando Sentinel’s Central Florida 100.