Heard about the new variant? That it appears to be much more transmissible but not more lethal? That's true but no relief. Transmissibility is an *exponential* risk and thus a huge threat. We need aggressive public health action now—especially vaccination. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/12/virus-mutation-catastrophe/617531/

As I write, new variant is still a respiratory virus, so the basic tools will not change, and they will all continue to work. But they may need to be more strict to work as well as before. With vaccines around the corner, every infection we avoid or delay matters *a great deal*.

I have the quote of the year here, from @dylanhmorris "Exponentials are so cruel that nobody wants to look them in the eye." Lack of more severe disease from this variant is, of course, good but it doesn't undo the exponential (thus enormous) threat from more transmissibility.