in march of this year as it evolved in india later last year. it took us three to four months to understand this delta variant emerged and was spreading. the pandemic prevention institute by accelerating work with labs in the u.s. and the academic and private sector will help the cdc and government officials do that job even better so we can understand how this virus is emerging even faster so we can get in front of it. >> rick, on july 19th you tweeted about something the surgeon general said about it being reasonable for local officials to reimplement mask mandates in the midst of this surge. what do you think about mask mandates that have been reinstated? should there be more? >> ali, we have learned through the last course of this year and a half of this virus that we have a number of important tools at our fingertips that will slow the spread of this virus, reduce infections and save lives. masking is a very important