News Room

A spat between the European Union and the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca is threatening to hamper global vaccine efforts, and is raising tensions on the continent as European countries struggle to vaccinate their populations amid the threat of new, more virulent strains of the coronavirus. The EU purchased 400 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which the company made in partnership with Oxford University, in advance of it being approved by EU regulators. But last week, AstraZeneca abruptly announced that due to production issues it would only be able to deliver about 31 million doses to the EU, or about 40 percent of the roughly 80 million doses promised in the first quarter. That, of course, angered EU leaders, who are desperately trying to inoculate their populations.

A year into the coronavirus pandemic, Americans are painfully aware that overcoming the scourge is a marathon, not a sprint. Enter Dave McGillivray, who knows a thing or two about endurance events — and logistics. The race director of the Boston Marathon, which is on hold until fall, has been tapped by the state of Massachusetts to run mass vaccination operations at Gillette Stadium and Fenway Park. Idled at his day job by the pandemic, he’s part of an emerging group of event organizers and other unconventional logistics experts who are using their skills to help the nation vaccinate as many people against COVID-19 as possible.

The TSA announced that the rate of firearm detection at airport security checkpoints doubled from 2019 to 2020. At the same time, the number of passengers screened dropped by 500 million. Does this mean that air travelers were safer in 2020, or were there more firearms being carried onto airplanes? The clue to resolve this quandary lies in airport security environments with covid-19 and the profile of passengers who are now flying. In December 2020, the TSA screened over 60% fewer passengers than were screened in December 2019. Airport passenger screening is an intense process of managing the flow of people and items using security technology to detect threats, effectively looking for needles in haystacks.

COVID-19 has impacted every intercollegiate sport this season. For example, over 20 percent of all men’s Division I basketball games have been cancelled or postponed, not including the Ivy League, whose teams shut down their seasons entirely. The NCAA recently announced that March Madness will be held entirely in the state of Indiana. The NCAA has also made several policy changes, including granting one extra year of eligibility to spring-, fall- and winter-sport student-athletes and permitting student-athletes to transfer to another school without sitting out one year. Although such changes appear sympathetic to the needs of student-athletes, they carry with them unintended consequences.

Dr. Anna Nagurney, director of the Virtual Center for Supernetworks at UMass Amherst, said the logistical failures of Massachusetts’ coronavirus vaccine registration website are unacceptable in a state that is “known for its prowess in information technology.”