News Room

The effort to get Americans vaccinated has been "extremely poor" and hampered by avoidable setbacks, experts have told Newsweek. However, some states, like West Virginia and North Dakota, have emerged as relative outliers as the country struggles to hit targets. Thanks in part to Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration's COVID vaccine and treatment funding program, vaccines have been developed in record time, and distribution has gone relatively well, according to academics. But the country has tripped up at arguably the most important hurdle: administering the shots that will protect people from COVID.

Even though we are slowly beginning to get the vaccine for Covid-19, we are encouraged to continue to wear our masks and stay in our bubble as often as possible  to help keep us safe and healthy. Dr. Julie Swann, professor with North Carolina State University, joined Wilson to talk about the latest on Covid-19 & why it’s time to upgrade your mask and stay in your bubble. Dr. Julie Swann is the department head and Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at NC State. Professor Swann has also served as the science advisor for pandemic response at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Dr. Swann has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Vox, and USA Today.

After the initial excitement following the authorization of the first COVID-19 vaccines, a harsh reality set in. People who want a vaccine can’t get it, some counties have more than others and older people are camping out for it the way they once might have for tickets to a Bruce Springsteen concert. All of this would seem to be an indication of supply chain problems or systems breakdowns. In fact, it’s more about a shortage of employees to support the supply chains and distributions. Some states are even considering calling up the National Guard.

One takeaway from the past year is that many people who think they can model coronavirus infections and deaths often cannot. There’s the Cornell professor who predicted 1,200 cases at the Ivy League university, but wound up off by 66%, since the total amount through December 31 came out closer to 400. Now meet Sheldon Jacobson, a computer science professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In June, he predicted up to seven college football players would die from COVID. “I guarantee someone is going to die,” Jacobson said in June, according to CBS Sports. “The virus does not discriminate.” But no one died during the college football season that ended earlier this week.

At least three lawmakers who sheltered in a secure room during last week’s storming of the Capitol said they have since tested positive for Covid-19, adding to fears about the virus’s spread during the attack. The lawmakers, all Democrats, said they had fled during the attack to the room where Republican lawmakers refused to wear masks. A video posted by Punchbowl News shows Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D., Del.) in the room offering masks to a group of House Republicans, who decline to put them on. The Capitol’s physician told lawmakers and staff this weekend that those who were in the room might have been exposed to someone infected with Covid-19.