Holiday traditions are important for everybody. Leslie M. Kantor, chair of the Department of Urban-Global Public Health at the Rutgers School of Public Health, explains some practical steps that people can take to take care of each other while gathering for holidays.

Is it safe to gather with my family and loved ones this holiday season?

The COVID-19 pandemic is still going on, with infections and hospitalizations on the rise, which isn’t surprising due to an increase in holiday gatherings and colder weather moving people indoors. Omicron – the latest COVID-19 variant – has also been detected in almost every state in the U.S. While we don’t know much about this new variant, it is clearly spreading far more easily than the original COVID-19 strain, even among those who are vaccinated. The good news is that scientists expect our current COVID-19 vaccines with recommended boosters to protect against severe illness, hospitalizations, and deaths due to infection with the Omicron variant. To read the full story.