Prognosis: Breakthrough

In Canada, the Covid-19 outbreak has affected much of the country. In Quebec, where three in five of Canada’s virus deaths have hit, rage over new lockdowns is palpable. In Ontario, ICUs are filling up. Out west, caseloads are hitting records.

But four eastern Canadian provinces, comprising 2.4 million people, have banded together, barred outsiders, and hewed tightly to health guidelines. As a result, the region has a Covid-19 death rate that’s one tenth the rest of the country’s. With almost no one noticing, Atlantic Canada has become a pandemic Shangri-La. Montreal Bureau Chief Sandrine Rastello reports on the outpost of quiet obedience that calls itself the Atlantic Bubble.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Today’s episode is a collaboration with Bloomberg Law. Hosted by David Schultz, this special investigative podcast examines how businesses of every stripe, large and small, assumed they had insurance that covered them in the event of a shutdown and how those assumptions were, by and large, wrong. 

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Everyone is fighting the same coronavirus, but nearly a year into the pandemic, quality of life and control of the pathogen’s spread look vastly different across the world. Bloomberg’s new Covid Resilience Ranking scores the largest 53 economies on their success at containing the virus with the least amount of social and economic disruption. Rachel Chang discusses the data and the analysis that went into determining the best places for weathering the pandemic. 

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Amid a lame duck presidency and with the widespread availability of a COVID-19 vaccine still months away, US governors have become the first line of defense against the pandemic’s winter onslaught. Emma Court discusses how, with a lack of federal leadership, it has fallen to local authorities to impose mask mandates, curfews, and potentially even lockdowns before the winter, and the holidays, hit.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Restaurants across the country have been building and using outdoor dining spaces since the summer. But as winter approaches, many establishments are converting them into sheds or tents to help keep customers warm. As Kristen V. Brown reports, these new structures can sometimes feel more indoors than outdoors. We wondered how safe they really are for patrons.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

In a mere nine months, Eli Lilly accomplished an unprecedented feat: The drug giant took a blood sample from one of the first U.S. patients to recover from Covid-19, identified an antibody that could fight the virus, and created a version of the antibody to treat people with the disease. Riley Griffin spoke to Lilly's CEO David Ricks about the challenges facing the company and its new treatment amid the worsening pandemic.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

It’s taken less than a year for scientists to develop what appears to be an effective vaccine against the coronavirus. Drugmaker Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech delivered dazzling preliminary results in a large patient trial this month, and just today Moderna announced that its vaccine also looks extremely effective. But creating a vaccine is only part of the challenge. Jason Gale spoke with top US infectious-disease doctor Anthony Fauci about another impediment to a successful vaccination strategy: people not wanting to take it.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

New Zealand is one of the countries that has been most successful in crushing the spread of the coronavirus. Now, the World Health Organization has asked former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark to co-chair an independent panel evaluating the critical steps taken early in the pandemic. She spoke to senior editor Jason Gale about how different countries approached the virus spread, and which approaches worked.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Eight months into the pandemic, the coronavirus is on a rampage around the world. In Europe, a surge in cases has led to a new wave of lockdowns. The U.S. is entering its most dangerous period for the virus yet, and more than 10 million people have been infected. With Michelle Fay Cortez and Robert Langreth, we look back at how we got here, and ahead to what’s next for the outbreak.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Countries like the United Kingdom and France are locking down amid a spike in cases. They’re concerned that winter will only make things worse. But if Europe and America want to see an example of how well lockdowns work during colder months, they need only look at Melbourne, Australia. The country’s second-largest city went through two lockdowns – one of which happened during its winter. Remarkably, the city has reported no new cases since late October. But, Jason Gale reports, it has come at a cost.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com