Despite rise in virus cases, elected leaders again ignore health experts’ advice to tighten restrictions

In a deadly pattern we’ve seen before, coronavirus infections are rising across the region but area elected officials are ignoring health experts’ advice to tighten restrictions on public gatherings and businesses to thwart the disease’s spread. It seems our leaders are willing to tolerate scores or even hundreds of additional covid deaths in the next few months, on the assumption that rising vaccination rates will prevent a major surge before they pay a political price.