News Room

Never have operations research and public health collided so magnificently than in 2020. The world requires modeling to predict how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting communities around the world on a daily basis. Dr. Pinar Keskinocak is leading this daunting charge. Keskinocak is the director of the Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems at Georgia Tech, where she also serves as a professor and the William W. George Chair. She’s also leading some of the nation’s top COVID-19 pandemic research and became president of The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) this year. 

An N.C. State University expert says the COVID-19 vaccines have gone through extensive testing before rolling out to the public, but it might take some time before everyone is vaccinated. Dr. Julie Swann, the department head, was on loan to the CDC during the H1N1 Pandemic in 2009 and 2010 and has been studying pandemics for years. She is also leading a team that’s working with the Council for State and Territorial Epidemiologist and the CDC, forecasting and modeling the dissemination of results out to the public.

Currently, 174,000 doses of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine are arriving in Georgia beginning on Monday and will continue to do so throughout the week, now that the FDA has approved it for emergency use. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, that allotment is part of the 5.9 million doses of Moderna vaccines being distributed throughout the United States this week. An additional 2 million more doses of Pfizer are also expected Christmas week.

You've probably heard about or seen Dippin' Dots around, even if you've never had it before because the unique ice cream is everywhere – at movie theaters, theme parks, malls, fairs, festivals, and stadiums. The one-of-a-kind ice cream was invented in 1988 by a microbiologist, Curt Jones, and billed then as the "ice cream of the future." Dippin' Dots is what it is thanks to its standout beaded shape (via the Dippin' Dots website). The frozen treat is made, shipped, and stored at -49 degrees Fahrenheit and through a supply network scientists call the "cold chain." It's the same system that scientists are now looking at as they strategize the deployment of millions of COVID-19 vaccines across the country.

The much-awaited COVID-19 vaccine is going into arms around the world, and a second vaccine has been put into the arsenal. Now what? North Carolina's Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen said “it’s going to be well into the spring” before vaccines are “widely available to folks.” In the meantime, the state reported on Friday it's highest single-day count of COVID-19 cases.