News Room

Of the many things that COVID-19 has made abundantly clear to us, surely one of them is a newfound realization that public health has become increasingly complex. Understanding the challenges to public health – that is, the task of guarding the well-being of the U.S. population – is essential now more than ever. As an engineer, design futurist and graduate program director, I have seen how COVID-19 has transformed how public health preparedness is viewed and understood. Some say the pandemic has delivered an urgency for a reimagining of public health.

The rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine is going badly. Delivering more doses faster is central to the 200-page White House Covid-19 plan, which was released last week, one day after President Joe Biden took office. The plan, which promises to vaccinate 100 million people in the new administration’s first 100 days, lays out a raft of initiatives for revving up delivery: releasing almost all doses, loosening eligibility criteria, tuning up distribution, and developing new packaging to preserve temperature-sensitive products for transport to rural areas.

As the United States nears another year of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, the University of Wisconsin reopens for a third semester impacted by the deadly virus. With over 6,000 dead in the State of Wisconsin since the start of the pandemic and two vaccines now available for select populations, eyes turn to the UW administration, its students and Dane County to see where this semester will go. To test or not to test. For Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Lori Reesor, it’s all about testing.

President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced the White House's plan to purchase another 200 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna's two-shot COVID-19 vaccines for distribution over the summer, as well as more immediate steps to speed up vaccinations nationwide. "This is enough vaccine to fully vaccinate 300 [million] Americans by end of the summer, beginning of the fall," Biden said, adding that his team will "soon be able to confirm the purchase." "This is an aggregate plan that doesn’t leave anything on the table or anything to chance as we’ve seen happen in the last year. I’ve said before — this is a wartime effort."

The European Union is calling out vaccine makers AstraZeneca (AZN) and Pfizer (PFE) over delivery delays that could slow its recovery from the pandemic. Officials are even threatening to restrict exports and take legal action as anger mounts. AstraZeneca will not be able to deliver as many doses of its vaccine as promised, according to EU officials, putting government rollout plans and the economic recovery at risk. The news comes after Pfizer said it had delivered fewer doses of its vaccine than expected last week. EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides on Monday expressed dissatisfaction on talks with AstraZeneca and said conversations would continue. She said the drugmaker "intends to supply considerably fewer doses in the coming weeks than agreed and announced."