Prognosis: Misconception

The U.S. vaccine supply is poised to double in the coming weeks and months, according to an analysis by Bloomberg, allowing a broad expansion of doses administered across the country. Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers and U.S. officials have accelerated their production timelines, and Drew Armstrong reports that the spigots are about to open, providing hundreds of millions of doses just as pharmacies and mass-vaccination sites become more equipped to administer them.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As vaccines roll out across the U.S., logistics and supply are just some of the challenges in making sure everyone has equal access to the vaccine. Angelica LaVito reports how one Boston health system is also confronting another major problem in vaccine distribution: a long history of racial inequity in the U.S. healthcare system.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Doctors and nurses can feel as if they’re living in two worlds. One in which patients are getting sick and dying from the coronavirus, and another in which people deny the virus is real. Emergency room physician Mike Hunihan describes what it’s like to live and work with that dissonance. Today's special episode is a collaboration with Tradeoffs, a podcast about our costly, complicated and counter-intuitive health care system.

Subscribe to the Tradeoffs podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Or check them out at tradeoffs.org.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the outskirts of Marburg, a small college town in Germany, coronavirus vaccine manufacturer BioNTech has spent five frantic months renovating one of its factories to produce mRNA. Demand for the vaccine has been so massive that the Pfizer-BioNTech partnership can’t meet it with its existing facilities--hence the race to retrofit factories that weren't initially designed to support the vaccine. Naomi Kresge reports that success would mean being able to vaccinate about 375 million more people per year, and help bring the pandemic under control.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Just two months ago, the incredible performance of new vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer had people cheering for an imminent end to the pandemic. But an onslaught of fast-spreading and potentially dangerous mutations of the virus changed that. So now, even as pharma companies ramp up production in the early stages of a massive rollout, they are racing to retool their vaccine strategies. Robert Langreth reports that booster shots could give drugmakers a lucrative new revenue stream. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This weekend, Chicago Public Schools reached a tentative agreement with its teachers to resume in-person learning later this week. The deal isn’t final, and it’s the latest in a series of tense back-and-forth between the city’s schools and its teachers union. The bitter fight in Chicago echoes other big cities. Shruti Singh reports that tensions have escalated coast to coast between unions fearing the spread of Covid-19, and local officials under pressure to get teachers back into the classroom.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When we’re coming down with a cold or are feeling a bit stressed, or perhaps even exhibiting the first symptoms of COVID-19: minute changes to our voice are often one of the first indicators that something is wrong. These vocal biomarkers are often beyond what a human can detect: but what if an app on your phone could? Health reporter Michelle Fay Cortez recently spoke to David Liu, CEO of Sonde Health, which has released an app that uses a person’s voice to detect early symptoms of respiratory illnesses, including COVID-19. She explores what vocal biomarkers can tell us. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Joe Biden’s new Covid-19 czar is a former business executive and Biden ally named Jeff Zients, who is little known to most Americans. Zients doesn’t have a medical or military background, like the two men who ran Operation Warp Speed, the Trump Administration’s vaccine delivery program. Anna Edney reports that the posting will test Zients’s reputation with Democrats in Washington as the go-to-guy when things go awry.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Since Pfizer and Moderna vaccine shipments in the U.S. began in mid-December, the priority has been doctors, nurses and other professionals likely to come in contact with the novel coronavirus. But health care workers who aren’t with hospitals and major health systems say they’re being overlooked. Elise Young reports that thousands of health-care workers are still seeking vaccinations even as states and cities open eligibility to people far removed from the pandemic’s front line.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rochelle Walensky, the new leader of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, faces two difficult missions at the same time: Leading the agency’s Covid-19 response and trying to restore the agency’s stature, post-Trump. I talked to John Tozzi reports on the job ahead for Walensky, and how she plans to achieve it.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.