Prognosis: Misconception

U.S. companies are taking some of the first concrete steps to prepare for the unprecedented and complex task of distributing hundreds of millions of doses to the American workforce. That means, for some: procuring deep-freezers to store vaccines or setting up health clinics at their facilities. Others are weighing whether to require vaccination for employees returning to in-person work. And, as Ry...

Just one month ago, Iowa experienced its worst Covid-19 surge yet. Coronavirus cases began soaring there in early November, as they have throughout the United States. By the middle of the month, Iowa was recording about 4,000 new cases every day. But this week, staff at a University of Iowa Health Care system finally had reason to celebrate. The first doses of Pfizer’s vaccine arrived at the Iowa...

As the first shots of the Covid-19 vaccines in the U.S. are administered, one of many big hurdles has yet to be cleared: States must transport and distribute the massive orders to the millions who need it. The state of Louisiana has been thinking about this problem for months. In November, they decided to test their vaccination strategy, using the flu vaccine. Angelica Lavito went to Shreveport as...

At the center of Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s program to accelerate the development of Covid treatments and vaccines, is a man named Moncef Slaoui. Dr. Slaoui is chief scientific adviser for the Operation, and is trying to leverage decades of experience in the pharmaceutical industry to secure deals that can help curb the pandemic. Riley Griffin spoke to him about the possibili...

The U.K. began administering the first Covid-19 vaccine this week, and the U.S. may do the same within days. But, the emergence of these vaccines brings tough choices around who gets it first and how it will be distributed. Bloomberg senior editor Jason Gale spoke with an ethics expert about the thinking behind some of these decisions and how the current vaccines could affect how we develop future...

The coming week could mark an early turning point in the U.S. battle against Covid-19. An advisory panel made up of top medical experts will meet December 10th to help the Food and Drug Administration review the drug for possible emergency authorization. That would clear the way to making it a top weapon against the virus. Reporter Anna Edney breaks down the next steps in the approval process, and...

Weeks before U.S. states expect to receive their first shipments of Covid-19 vaccines, they’re getting conflicting messages from the federal government about exactly how many doses may arrive. Some governors have made splashy announcements about how much of Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccines they expect to get if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorizes them this month. Other states can’t prov...

One of Joe Biden’s first acts as president-elect was to announce a Covid-19 advisory board, putting the fight against the pandemic front and center in his presidential plans. On today's episode, a member of that advisory board talks to us about how a Biden White House plans to overhaul the government’s Coronavirus response. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In Canada, the Covid-19 outbreak has affected much of the country. In Quebec, where three in five of Canada’s virus deaths have hit, rage over new lockdowns is palpable. In Ontario, ICUs are filling up. Out west, caseloads are hitting records. But four eastern Canadian provinces, comprising 2.4 million people, have banded together, barred outsiders, and hewed tightly to health guidelines. As a res...

Today’s episode is a collaboration with Bloomberg Law. Hosted by David Schultz, this special investigative podcast examines how businesses of every stripe, large and small, assumed they had insurance that covered them in the event of a shutdown and how those assumptions were, by and large, wrong.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Everyone is fighting the same coronavirus, but nearly a year into the pandemic, quality of life and control of the pathogen’s spread look vastly different across the world. Bloomberg’s new Covid Resilience Ranking scores the largest 53 economies on their success at containing the virus with the least amount of social and economic disruption. Rachel Chang discusses the data and the analysis that we...

Amid a lame duck presidency and with the widespread availability of a COVID-19 vaccine still months away, US governors have become the first line of defense against the pandemic’s winter onslaught. Emma Court discusses how, with a lack of federal leadership, it has fallen to local authorities to impose mask mandates, curfews, and potentially even lockdowns before the winter, and the holidays, hit....

Restaurants across the country have been building and using outdoor dining spaces since the summer. But as winter approaches, many establishments are converting them into sheds or tents to help keep customers warm. As Kristen V. Brown reports, these new structures can sometimes feel more indoors than outdoors. We wondered how safe they really are for patrons. See omnystudio.com/listener for privac...

In a mere nine months, Eli Lilly accomplished an unprecedented feat: The drug giant took a blood sample from one of the first U.S. patients to recover from Covid-19, identified an antibody that could fight the virus, and created a version of the antibody to treat people with the disease. Riley Griffin spoke to Lilly's CEO David Ricks about the challenges facing the company and its new treatment am...

It’s taken less than a year for scientists to develop what appears to be an effective vaccine against the coronavirus. Drugmaker Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech delivered dazzling preliminary results in a large patient trial this month, and just today Moderna announced that its vaccine also looks extremely effective. But creating a vaccine is only part of the challenge. Jason Gale spoke wit...

New Zealand is one of the countries that has been most successful in crushing the spread of the coronavirus. Now, the World Health Organization has asked former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark to co-chair an independent panel evaluating the critical steps taken early in the pandemic. She spoke to senior editor Jason Gale about how different countries approached the virus spread, and which a...

Eight months into the pandemic, the coronavirus is on a rampage around the world. In Europe, a surge in cases has led to a new wave of lockdowns. The U.S. is entering its most dangerous period for the virus yet, and more than 10 million people have been infected. With Michelle Fay Cortez and Robert Langreth, we look back at how we got here, and ahead to what’s next for the outbreak. See omnystudio...

Countries like the United Kingdom and France are locking down amid a spike in cases. They’re concerned that winter will only make things worse. But if Europe and America want to see an example of how well lockdowns work during colder months, they need only look at Melbourne, Australia. The country’s second-largest city went through two lockdowns – one of which happened during its winter. Remarkabl...

Cornell University, in upstate New York, welcomed around 24,000 people back to campus this fall. The idea of students packed into dorms and mingling in classrooms made many people nervous. But while outbreaks have plagued colleges across the country, Cornell has managed to keep a lid on its Covid cases. In fact, the college’s test-positivity rate has been among the lowest of any college or univers...

The holidays will not be business as usual this year. Instead of just figuring out what to cook for Thanksgiving dinner, we have to consider things like who we can invite to dinner safely, or whether we should even be hosting a meal at all. Reporter Kristen V. Brown finds expert answers to your questions around social distancing etiquette and the Holiday season. See omnystudio.com/listener for pri...

Operation Warp Speed, The White House’s effort to fast-track a vaccine for covid-19, appears to be a conspicuous exception to the government’s otherwise disastrous management of the pandemic. The project has cleared bureaucratic hurdles and awarded more than $12 billion in vaccine-related contracts and has an overall budget of as much as $18 billion. Cynthia Koons reports on what Operation Warp Sp...

The coronavirus is both a medical problem and a public-health problem – that’s baked into its biology. But the pandemic in the U.S. has been exacerbated by another challenge of our own making: a pervasive atmosphere of distrust. That atmosphere has let misinformation about the virus flourish. That misinformation is often amplified by the man with the country’s loudest megaphone, President Donald T...

The U.S. government’s Covid-19 strategy has been to rely on developing vaccines and treatments, rather than emphase measures to limit the spread of the disease. That could delay the return to normal life for Americans. One report suggests that if the vaccine program has any hiccups, we could be living with the virus well into 2023. Health reporter Naomi Kresge reports on the cost of the government...

Robinhood has become one of the Covid economy’s breakout successes. Americans marooned at home binge-watched Netflix shows, went shopping on Amazon Prime, and discovered day trading on their mobile phones. “Robinhood traders” became the shorthand explanation for the frenzy of often speculative retail investing in the pandemic lockdowns. But Annie Massa reports that Robinhood is now racing to prove...

Black Americans have an increased vulnerability to Covid. Many explanations have been floated for that: Black people are more likely to have chronic illnesses such as diabetes and high blood pressure; many work in frontline jobs. But Cynthia Koons reports that scientists are increasingly certain that bad air plays a role in the coronavirus’s course. One ZIP code in Detroit illustrates the relation...