Dr. Stephen Thomas didn’t only talk about the new boosters. He talked about how the lack of federal funding has negatively impacted his work to get Prince George’s County residents in working-class communities vaccinated, and educated about the virus.

Currently, Prince George’s County, under the new metric, has a low community spread. It’s for this reason that local health officials don’t seem to be alarmed about rising infection cases. However, under the old metric, the current infection rate would be considered substantial which would require local officials to reinstate a mask mandate, and continue to encourage vaccination and booster shots.