Friday on Political Rewind: On Jan. 21, 2020, the first case of COVID-19 was detected in the U.S.. Since then, more than 2 million Georgians contracted the virus and nearly 40,000 have died. As a milder variant goes around this winter, we ask a panel of health experts how to best protect ourselves.

The panel

Professor Amber Schmidtke, @AmberSchmidtke, medical educator and public health microbiologist

Dr. Carlos del Rio, @CarlosdelRio7, executive associate dean, Emory School of Medicine and Grady Health System

Professor Rodney Lyn, Dean of School of Public Health, Georgia State University

Timestamps:

0:00 - Introductions

5:00 - Updated COVID numbers

12:00 - Home testing and testing numbers

14:00 - COVID fatigue

16:00 - Importance of boosters

19:00 - Regional hotspots in Georgia

21:00 - Reliability of home tests

26:00 - Disparities between communities of color

32:00 - Impact of health care in Georgia?

38:00 - Rural vs. urban divide

42:00 - Maternal mortality rates

45:00 - Attacks on health care workers during the pandemic, misinformation

52:00 - HIV cases update

Monday on Political Rewind: The AJC's Patricia Murphy joins the panel.