News Room

In 1999, Disneyland became a pioneer of the virtual queue. That’s the year the company introduced its FastPass system, which allowed customers to hold their place in line virtually while enjoying attractions elsewhere in the park. Virtual queues have since become common in restaurants, call centers, rideshare platforms, and other businesses — and the Covid-19 pandemic has only accelerated this trend. But not all virtual queues are created equal. What can businesses do to optimize the customer experience when implementing a virtual queuing system?

Kenya is among countries that will be required to improve cold chain networks to meet the storage demands of a Covid-19 vaccine. Experts say refrigeration requirements have cast doubt on the ability to access the vaccine to more than three billion people. As a result, the poor who are among the hardest hit by Covid-19 are likely to be the last to be reached by the vaccine.

During the coronavirus pandemic, the world has become reliant on personal protective equipment, or PPE. Most of this essential gear, from masks to gowns to goggles, comes from China -- and experts in the U.S. say this foreign dependence is problematic. Bur for now, the country where the virus originated is producing much of what's needed to fight it off. Special correspondent Patrick Fok reports.

States have been working hard on developing COVID-19 vaccine distribution plans. By the time the vaccine becomes available, about 1 in 4 people in the country may have recovered from COVID-19 and therefore be partially immune, and others who need the vaccine most may avoid it. The distribution plans should therefore address both possible immunity and vaccine reluctance as demand-side issues.

The long-anticipated 2020 General Election, which was already going to be a show of the ages, is coupled with a global outbreak of the COVID-19 virus. When voter turnout is as high as it is expected to be this year, the lines, or queues in the data science world, can become long — sometimes very long. The spring Presidential primary election in my home state of Wisconsin occurred during the statewide “stay-at-home” order associated with the pandemic, and many polling locations experienced long queues. Election officials are bracing for these queues to be even longer on November 3 when voter turnout will be much higher than it was for the primaries.