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Before vaccines arrived, the best public health strategy against covid-19 was to throw everything we had at the virus — masking, distancing, hand-washing, cleaning, ventilation. That was the 2020 playbook, essentially an admission that no one strategy in and of itself was sufficient. But the game has changed. Given the availability of vaccines, here are 10 updates to the playbook for 2022: (Joseph G. Allen, 12/15)

Two weeks ago, I was flippant about Omicron, calling it a variant “with a name like a villain from a Transformers movie. ”Now I’m feeling chastened — and nervous. Just in time for Christmas, data pouring in from South Africa, Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, Washington State and elsewhere shows Omicron cases doubling very rapidly. It is pushing out Delta far faster than Delta replaced its predecessors. (Donald G. McNeil Jr, 12/15)

While the world waits to learn how the newly recognized omicron variant will reshape the COVID-19 pandemic, Washingtonians have so far reacted to its arrival the right way. Just check the lengthening lines that have formed again as people scramble to get vaccinations and booster shots. Don’t be dismayed if you can’t get a vaccine right away. That hassle actually is a good sign for the region. The omicron variant appears far more contagious than earlier COVID-19 strains. Within days of the state Department of Health’s Dec. 4 announcement omicron had been discovered locally, the University of Washington’s virology team reported it comprised 13% of COVID-19 case samples collected Dec. 8. The same day those samples were collected, Pfizer was offering the world a good-news update that “booster” third doses of its vaccine successfully inhibit omicron. (12/14)

The warnings are coming fast and furious. “Tidal wave,” said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. “Omicron is spreading at a rate we have not seen with any previous variant,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization’s director general. “I’m a lot more alarmed,” said Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. A new wave of highly transmissible coronavirus is engulfing the world and will explode soon in the United States. It is vital to grasp what this means and how to respond. (12/15)