“The best protection against this new variant or any of the various out there, the ones we’ve been dealing with already, is getting fully vaccinated and getting a booster shot … To their credit, the scientific community in South Africa quickly notified the world of the emergence of this new variant. This kind of transparency, to be encouraged and applauded because it increases our ability to respond quickly to any new threats.” So said Joe Biden as America and the world braces for Omicron, a Frankenstein-like variant about which we still have much to learn. One thing we know is that it spreads quickly and it’s coming to a host near you. Another thing we know is that if we don’t get vaccines throughout the world, we’ll be dealing with Greek letters for a long time. It sure seems like we should free the vaccines and let other countries have the recipe and make it on location, for our sake as well as theirs. Here’s the latest on Omicron from WaPo (Free Article).

+ Science: Why we won’t know for weeks how dangerous Omicron is. (While you’re waiting, get boosted.)

+ Merriam-Webster chooses vaccine as the 2021 word of the year.