Healthcare

Immunization of health-care workers and residents of long-term care facilities has begun.  With each day bringing over 250,000 new confirmed cases and well over 2,000 additional deaths in the U.S., help is on the way to curb the COVID-19 momentum plaguing our nation. The full benefits of the vaccine will not be realized until tens of millions of people receive their two-dose regimen, which will likely not occur until the summer of 2021.  

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved two COVID-19 vaccines under the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) process. With these approvals, the immunization of health care workers and those in long-term care facilities has begun, providing them with a measure of protection against COVID-19. Waiting in the immunization queue are essential workers and at-risk populations. The expectation is that vaccines will be available for all who wish to be immunized by the middle of 2021.

The 747 is quickly flying away from passenger service. But is the era of the four-engine jumbo jet really dead? Not if you like to get everything from high-value fish to higher-valued COVID-19 vaccine delivered. Just in time for the holidays, UPS got its own eagerly-anticipated package—a brand new 747 8F freighter. On December 14, the $419 million dollar plane was ferried from the Boeing plant and airfield in Everett, Washington to its new UPS home at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, where UPS has its largest air-sorting hub, WorldPort. The new plane is the 20th 747 8F to be delivered to UPS, part of a total of 28 aircraft ordered by the cargo carrier.

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. 

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.

More than 7,000 cases were reported in Arizona today alone and as COVID-19 cases rise, so does the number of travelers at airports. This weekend alone TSA screened more than 3 million passengers, nationwide despite the alarming surge in cases. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the Tucson Air Traffic Control towers are periodically closing due to staff members testing positive for COVID-19. Researchers believe airport screenings could be where the virus is spreading. “Security checkpoints are a small footprint of the large number of people congregating. It becomes a COVID-19 warzone,” said Sheldon Jacobson, a computer science professor at the University of Illinois.

Sherean Malekzadeh, who runs a marketing firm in Atlanta, hasn't been out to eat once since the pandemic was called in March. She skipped grocery stores for much of the year as well. Ordering online takes more time, "and you have to be on standby when the shoppers are there, in case they want to text you about missing items, but it makes me feel safer." Malekzadeh wasn't alone on that front. The pandemic changed our relationship with food in 2020. Online food ordering, from groceries and restaurants, was growing anyway, but this year it just got more popular faster. 

A new contact tracing mobile app called "WI Exposure Notification" is set to launch next week, giving Wisconsinites another tool to stop the spread of COVID-19. Gov. Tony Evers announced the app will go live Wednesday, Dec. 23. “We’re excited about this app’s potential to enhance our state’s response to COVID-19,” said Gov. Evers. “The voluntary WI Exposure Notification app is another tool in our toolbox to stop the spread. Because it lets you know faster if you’ve been in close contact with someone who’s tested positive, you can take steps to keep yourself safe and protect those around you. Also, the app doesn’t collect or use device location, so users will remain anonymous.”

The number of active cases of COVID-19 among Transportation Security Administration officers reached 886 people on Dec. 15. To date, over 4,000 officers have tested positive, with 11 fatalities. In addition, over 90% of infected TSA officers perform checkpoint screening, placing them in direct contact with passengers.

While the vaccine may be months away for many in the country, there’s another tool on its way that can go in the hands of everyone in Wisconsin as soon as next week. The State announced the WI Exposure Notification, a voluntary and free smartphone app that uses Bluetooth to alert users if they’ve been in close contact with another user who has tested positive for COVID-19. Whenever someone tests positive for COVID-19, they’ll be sent a code that can be entered into the app, which is used to anonymously send an alert to users with whom they’ve shared a Bluetooth signal.