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.

Cannabis 2.0 Rarely does an entirely new industry emerge in packaging and processing, but the legalization of cannabis for medical and adult-use did just that. Sit in as Healthcare Packaging Editor Keren Sookne and PMMI Media Group’s VP of Content Jim Chrzan chat with Greg Flickinger of Green Thumb International (GTI) about the industry’s response to cannabis packaging. The future is now! If your company is not automating, you risk falling behind your competitors.  See how robots are now uncaged and cobots are working safely alongside humans. Discover how quickly automation offers ROI, the latest standards and what trends and research indicate for the continuing wave of robotic growth.

Pay cuts and salary freezes have become an unfortunate hallmark of the Covid-19 recession. Over seven million employees have seen their wages drop since March, and a great many others have had their pay frozen. But a handful of companies have bucked this trend and increased pay despite the economic crisis. In November, yogurt maker Chobani announced that it was raising its workers’ lowest hourly wage from $13 to $15; the floor was set at $18 in high-cost centers like New York. E-furniture retailer Wayfair followed suit last week with a $15 minimum.

During an afternoon news conference Thursday, President Joe Biden was very blunt saying it’s going to take months to get the majority of Americans vaccinated against COVID-19. It’s been a slow process, but Channel 2′s Matt Johnson got some insight about how things could really ramp up now that a new administration is in place. Jose Cordero is a University of Georgia professor who also served on Biden’s transition team as an expert in vaccine distribution. “It’s an extremely complex process to get the vaccine to everyone,” Cordero told Johnson. He says one thing that needed improvement was cooperation between states and the federal government.

“There was not the kind of support that is really needed to get the vaccine from the warehouse to every household,” Cordero said.

For months, Marcia Goldstein of Waynesville thought her 94-year old mother, Maxine Goldstein, would get a COVID-19 vaccine at Bella Vista Gracious Retirement Living, her retirement community in Asheville. Bella Vista’s management did too. But within the past week, both said they were surprised to learn Bella Vista wouldn’t receive any vaccines. “I got desperate, I got frustrated, I got scared for my mother,” Marcia said upon hearing the news. “She’s not a spring chicken.” Marcia and Maxine had been told Bella Vista was part of the CDC Pharmacy Partnership Program for Long-term Care, which has contracted CVS and Walgreens to administer vaccines in long-term care facilities across most states, including North Carolina.