Media Coverage

As of Monday, Nick Muerdter had gotten 2.4 million hits on a page he launched two weeks ago to help people find open COVID-19 vaccine appointments at nearby pharmacies. “I just wanted to simplify it, so you didn’t have to click a dozen times to find out there are no appointments available,” the Colorado programmer said. The nation's vaccine appointment system is broken in many places, leading to a race to find appointments that in many places works best for the lucky, the internet-savvy or the mobile. "I have plenty of neighbors who are driving hours to get to other counties where they can get vaccinated, but not everybody can do that," said Melissa McPheeters, a professor of health policy and biomedical informatics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

People who show up to Maryland's mass coronavirus vaccination clinics will not be turned away for lack of documentation or proof of eligibility - a possible benefit for some of the state's at-risk residents, but also for those exploiting the system, medical ethicists, logistics experts and lawmakers say. Like other states, Maryland relies on an "honor system" at its mass vaccination sites, where those who show up for their shorts without proof of eligibility or photo identification are asked to sign affidavits immunized, according to Dennis R. Schrader, the state's acting health secretary. 

In March 2020, the World Health Organization gave the solution to reducing the impacts of the pandemic in the short term: tests, tests — and more tests. Universities have taken this to heart. Many large state universities have set up testing labs to be able to conduct surveillance testing on campus. N.C. State has joined other institutions in this including Georgia Tech, Penn State, Purdue University, and many more. Recent “gateway” testing on the campuses of Georgia Tech and N.C. State identified about 400 cases on each campus, many of whom were asymptomatic at the time of the test. The individuals testing positive were quarantined from others, and next week surveillance testing will be done again.

Las week on Sunday, some health workers experienced challenges with the vaccine registration system. They then decided to go directly, without registering, to the Steve Biko Academic Hospital to get their jab, which reportedly led to chaos that involved long queues and resulted in some who had successfully registered on the system being unable to get their jab and being turned away. South Africa is not alone in experiencing teething problems with vaccination systems. In the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outlined the need for a system that could handle a mass vaccination campaign once shots were approved. It wanted to streamline sign-ups, scheduling, inventory tracking, and immunization reporting.

Scott Simon, Host: More than 250 employees at meatpacking plants across the country have died of COVID-19. Congress is investigating the outbreaks, and companies are trying to stem the coronavirus infections. In North Carolina, one large Tyson Foods poultry plant is making some workplace changes. Keri Brown of member station WFDD has this report.

Keri Brown, Byline: The Tyson complex is nestled in the center of Wilkesboro. It's a massive facility employing around 3,000 people. That's a lot for this small rural community. The town manager of Wilkesboro, Ken Noland, says it's a challenging time for both the region and Tyson.