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The weight loss industry in the United States is vast and generates about $20 billion each year from over 100 million dieters. Commercial weight loss programs design customer-focused program policies to shape and optimize satisfaction and development. These two metrics are tied to how well a program does and the success of the customers in that program. New research in the INFORMS journal Marketing Science finds one key to success is making sure you have the right role model for dieters.

Covid-19 cases are accelerating around the country, reaching new daily highs in states including Texas and Arizona and spurring concerns about prospects for an economic and social revival. Thirty-three states, from Oklahoma to South Carolina and Washington, had a seven-day average of new cases on Tuesday that was higher than their average during the past two weeks, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Johns Hopkins University data.

The first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic isn’t even over and U.S. preparations for the second wave are nowhere to be seen. Political leaders like Vice President Michael Pence have said there won’t even be another resurgence, but fresh evidence suggests otherwise: Seven states, including Arizona, Florida and South Carolina, are experiencing new daily cases that more than doubled from two weeks ago. Regardless of whether a second wave is on its way, one thing is clear: The U.S. health care system is still struggling.

The pandemic has exposed one of the major weaknesses of many supply chains: the inability to react to sudden, large-scale disruptions. This lack of resiliency has been especially notable in the supply chains of the life sciences, health care, and food industries. The resulting turmoil has generated calls for companies that had offshored production to Asia (and China, in particular) to bring it back home. But this approach is no panacea. For one thing, given the huge size of the Chinese market, most global companies will need to keep a presence there to serve it. For another, since China is now a dominant, if not sole, source, for thousands of items, reducing dependence on it in many cases will take considerable investment and time.

Dr. Julie Swann, head of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at North Carolina State University talks to FOX23's Michelle Linn about the rising cases of COVID-19 in Tulsa, the virus's second wave, and the potential effects of President Donald Trump's recent rally.