In It Together

The Reggie Lewis Center on the campus of Roxbury Community College is open and vaccinating the community. College President Dr. Valerie Roberson talks about why it was important for her campus to be a vaccination resource for the Roxbury community.

The CDC says Massachusetts is among the states with the most cases of pediatric Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome caused by COVID. Arun Rath discusses the illness with Mass. General pediatric infectious disease specialist Dr. Ann Murray.

Winter high school sports are in full swing and soon, so too will spring sports. Host Arun Rath speaks with Avery Esdaile, the athletic director for the Boston Public Schools, about what the next few months will look like and how student athletes are continuing to cope with the changes.

New COVID variants are popping up across the country and here in Massachusetts. Arun Rath discusses the variants with UMass Memorial Healthcare infectious disease specialist Dr. Richard Ellison.

Bridging the digital divide is crucial for a successful vaccination campaign. We hear from Boston's Chief of Health and Human Services Marty Martinez about this. Plus, the work going into a mass vaccination site in Roxbury.

People who've come to be known as COVID long haulers are still dealing with health problems caused by coronavirus, months after they first came down with the illness. For long haulers who are also frontline healthcare workers, the problems are magnified. Arun Rath speaks with Deb McDonnell, a long hauler and longtime ICU nurse, about how she and her teenage daughter, also a COVID long hauler, are managing their symptoms. Arun also speaks with Mass. General’s Dr. Zeina El-Chemali, who’s running a clinic for long haulers like Deb.

Tracking COVID-19 in ... wastewater? We hear how Cambridge company Biobot Analytics is helping communities around the world make policy decisions that go beyond testing and case counts, including potentially identifying new variant strains of the coronavirus.

Arun Rath hears about coronavirus testing, contact tracing, and vaccination efforts at UMass-Amherst from the school’s public health director and Health Promotion Center head Ann Becker, as well as public health masters candidate Isabella Caruso, who also works at the center.

Middlesex County Jail and House of Corrections has started vaccinating those incarcerated and jail staff.

Middlesex County Sheriff Peter Koutoujian talks about this effort and how the facilities have been working to answer questions and get science-based information to those incarcerated.

Host Arun talks with Boston resident Eleanor Kaplan, who recently turned 100. We first heard from Eleanor in the spring. Tonight, we look back on the last year with her, including the election of her candidate - Joe Biden.