Media Coverage

Reports of spiking COVID-19 cases and related fatalities have been met with recent news of extremely promising vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna. With the two offerings promising 90 and 95 percent effectiveness against the virus, respectively, attention now turns to mass production and, more importantly, mass distribution. According to Anna Nagurney, Ph.D., Director of the Virtual Center for Supernetworks and professor at the Department of Operations and Information Management at the University of Massachusetts, distribution is where the biggest challenges lie.

With COVID-19 cases rising across the country, the need for a safe and reliable vaccine is increasing. Both Pfizer and Moderna have announced vaccine trials with more than 90% effectiveness. Creating vaccines and getting federal approval are only the first hurdles which are followed by finding ways to transport the highly-perishable vaccines to millions of Americans.

Upwards of 267,000 people have so far died in the U.S. from the novel coronavirus, and experts have fatalistic predictions about more infections throughout the winter. But it’s not just the coronavirus that’s killing people. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign computer scientist Sheldon Jacobson and Dr. Janet Jokela, acting dean of the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Urbana, examined Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data from March through May, the period early in the pandemic when states like Illinois had stay-at-home orders in effect.

Hot-spot Midwestern states have reported modest declines in new daily COVID-19 cases over the past few days, but epidemiologists have warned against taking this as a sign that the surge is over. “I think it is premature to feel that we turned the corner until we see at least a week or two to have sort of [a] decline,” said Dr. Oguzhan Alagoz, an expert in healthcare analytics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The holiday season is officially here and the General Services Administration (GSA) has notified President-elect Joe Biden that his transition can begin. Among his top priorities is his seven-point plan to combat the spread of COVID-19. The Trump administration has mentioned all these points at some point, with support ranging from neglect to passive endorsement. While the Trump approach tipped the scale towards economic recovery, the Biden approach focuses more heavily on public health benefits. The likely optimal path lies somewhere in between, with real-time adjustments needed to steer the nation forward based on the current state of affairs.