In It Together

When it comes to Massachusetts communities hit disproportionately hard by COVID, Chelsea is at or near the top of the list. Arun Rath speaks with Gladys Vega, head of La Colaborativa, formerly known as the Chelsea Collective, to hear how things are going in Chelsea as the pandemic seemingly winds down.

The state is getting ready to lift pandemic restrictions, but the vaccination effort still has a ways to go, especially in hard to reach communities. Arun Rath speaks with Mass General’s Dr. Alister Martin about the GOTVax campaign he's working on through Mass General and Boston Medical Center.

MIT political scientist Evan Lieberman talks about a paper he recently co-authored that looks at how different social and racial groups perceive COVID-19 health disparities and how that data can be used in future public health messaging campaigns.

Community health centers have been an important part of the state's vaccine strategy, and with mass vaccination sites set to close, they're about to become even more vital. Arun Rath speaks with Michael Curry, head of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers.

It's been a mystery from the beginning: why do some people become much sicker - than others with Covid - and why do some people just get a mild case, or don't have symptoms at all?

Nearly a year and a half into the pandemic, public health officials are learning more about why that is.

Host Arun Rath speaks with Dr. Marcia Goldberg, an infectious disease expert at Mass General Hospital, about a new study that looks at that variability in COVID.

Prisons and jails have been hotspots for coronavirus. But the Middlesex House of Correction is making a novel effort to fight outbreaks. It's the first detention facility in the country to monitor for the virus in its wastewater. We'll hear more about the monitoring program from Middlesex County sheriff Peter Koutoujian.

We continue our look at how the relaxing of state restrictions will impact some businesses.

Like many indoor performance spaces, the Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield has had an up and down time of it since the pandemic shut down the Company last spring. But this summer, they're planning indoor and outdoor performances with audiences for the first time in months. We’ll hear from Julianne Boyd, the Company's artistic director, about what those performances will look like and what she's most looking forward to this summer.

Arun Rath speaks with GBH State House reporter Mike Deehan, who gives us a primer on the state's rollback of COVID regulations. And Arun checks back in with Mimi Loureiro, founder of the O2 Yoga studio in Somerville, about how businesses like hers are handling this stage of the pandemic.

The India Association of Greater Boston is nearly 60 years old. Host Arun Rath speaks with the director of Civic Engagement for the India Association, Guru Samaga, about what what local Indian Americans are doing, individually and within institutions, to help with the crisis in India.

Arun Rath speaks with Dr. Louise Ivers, head of the Center for Global Health at Mass. General, about how places like Massachusetts, where vaccinations are going well, can't be fully safe from COVID as long as the virus is active in other parts of the world.