Hope was on the horizon as we inched closer to the end of 2021. Powerful tools like vaccines, masks, boosters and testing capabilities were ubiquitous, and the general public was deeply educated about how to protect themselves. A new year brought hope for a new health care environment that perhaps would largely leave COVID-19 in the rearview mirror. But, as the holidays unfolded, so did another serious wave of infections due to the omicron variant. And once again, health care workers and hospitals found themselves under siege as COVID-19 hospitalization trajectories went straight up in Texas and across the nation.
