Today, the US government announced a new initiative in the next phase of fighting the pandemic: investing $1.7 billion in genomic sequencing efforts that will help identify COVID-19 variants."Our ability to spot variants as they emerge and spread is vital, particularly as we aim to get ahead of dangerous variants before they emerge, as they are in the Midwest right now," Andy Slavitt, a senior White House pandemic adviser, said today during a COVID-19 briefing.Slavitt said vaccination is still the main tool to end the pandemic, and he encouraged all Americans to get the vaccine beginning Monday, when more states will make those 16 and older eligible.But genetic sequencing will enable the country to quickly identify new variants of the