additional surges. right now we have only seven states with indoor mask mandates statewide. so we know masks also help. we can increase testing. and we can also increase vaccination rates. again, we have the tools to prevent those surges and we need to put those into effect to prevent additional ones. i m almost afraid to ask, but is there another variant to the horizon? we could see what delta was doing in india well before it happened here. is there another one that health professionals like yourself are concerned about? right, and this is the concern because we know vaccination rates especially in the global south are quite, quite low. only 6% of the continent of africa is vaccinated. so there are variants out there. there are no variants of concern per se that we need to be worried about right now. but we know that if we don t get the rest of the world vaccinated, then we re going to see other variants of concern, it s only a matter of time. lastly, i want to ask you about th
by taking money from president obama s health care overhaul. connecticut became the nation s 17th state to abolish the death penalty yesterday. the measure, however, only applies to future cases and not to the 11 men already on death row. a u.s. marine who criticized president obama on facebook over his economic policies is being given an other than honorable discharge. 26-year-old sergeant gary stein will lose most of his benefits. with the help of california schoolchildren, nasa launched a special probe to study the most intense radiation storm since 2003. a weather balloon equipped with a rubber chicken. camilla wore a space suit equipped with sensors to measure radiation. and now here s your first look at how wall street will kick off the day. the dow opens at 13,090 after gaining 89 points. the s&p added 18. the nasdaq skyrocketed upwards 68 points.