Political Rewind: More than two years later, where do we stand with COVID? And what comes next?

Credit: Sam Bermas-Dawes, GPB News

The Panel: 

Dr. Carlos del Rio — Executive Associate Dean for Emory at Grady

Dr. Amber Schmidtke — Division Chair of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, University of St. Mary

Ellen Eldridge — Senior health care reporter, GPB News

The Breakdown: 

1. There is an encouraging decline in COVID cases nationwide and in Georgia. 

• Dr. Carlos del Rio said he is seeing an all-time low of COVID patients at Grady. 
• Dr. Amber Schmidtke urged vigilance but said she was optimistic about the historic lows. 

2. The omicron surge and ongoing vaccination efforts immunized many Americans. 

• Del Rio said the large spike in cases in January immunized a large swath of people in the country.
  • Georgia's Department of Health reported 319 cases on Tuesday, compared with a Jan. 8 peak of 18,534.
• He also adds that oral drugs like Paxlovid help to fight the virus.
• GPB News' Ellen Eldridge talked to del Rio about the emerging BA-2 variant. 

3. Who needs another booster? And when?

• The Biden administration gave the go-ahead for another COVID vaccine booster for people aged 50 and older and certain people who are immunocompromised. 
• Data from the state's Department of Public Health show at least 63% of Georgians have at least one dose of the vaccine. 

4. When and where do people still mask up?

• Most of Georgia's metro areas have dropped their mask mandate. 
• COVID measures became a huge issue during this election year. Gov. Brian Kemp signed The "Unmask Georgia Students" Act just last week.  

5. What lessons can we learn from this global public health crisis?

• Eldridge and del Rio said race and public health equity remain major crises.

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