News Room

Reports of spiking COVID-19 cases and related fatalities have been met with recent news of extremely promising vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna. With the two offerings promising 90 and 95 percent effectiveness against the virus, respectively, attention now turns to mass production and, more importantly, mass distribution. According to Anna Nagurney, Ph.D., Director of the Virtual Center for Supernetworks and professor at the Department of Operations and Information Management at the University of Massachusetts, distribution is where the biggest challenges lie.

With COVID-19 cases rising across the country, the need for a safe and reliable vaccine is increasing. Both Pfizer and Moderna have announced vaccine trials with more than 90% effectiveness. Creating vaccines and getting federal approval are only the first hurdles which are followed by finding ways to transport the highly-perishable vaccines to millions of Americans.

March through May saw a significant increase in deaths over previous years - and not just from COVID-19, says a new study from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. When deaths attributed to COVID-19 were removed from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention totals, the death rate in several demographics outpaced the same period in 2019, the study found. The timeframe represents the first three months of response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

After Kamala Harris made history as vice-president elect of the United States, Colin asks if these historic breakthrough moments translate to real progress. Just weeks on from the campaign, Colin also looks at all the latest developments and discusses the influence of social media on the result of Election 2020.

As COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths surge, experts see no sign of the increases slowing down unless there are some major changes. “It took about seven and a half months or so get to the first 100,000 cases in Wisconsin,” said Ajay Sethi, assistant professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It took about 36 days only to get the next 100,000 cases. We’re on track to getting the next 100,000 cases 20 days later.”