COVID-19 - Monday 12/28/2020

"‘We didn’t choose this.’ Unemployed man shares frustrations on COVID relief fight" PBS NewsHour 12/28/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Millions of unemployed Americans watched the weekend fight over COVID relief play out with a sense of exasperation over feeling like pawns in a game of political football, said Michael West, 60, an Uber driver who has been out of work since the spring.  He talks to Amna Nawaz about the realities of pandemic job loss and what he thinks Americans like him need from Congress in the coming months.

 

 

"3 tragic mistakes that made the 2020 pandemic worse" PBS NewsHour 12/28/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  At key moments over the last year leaders around the globe made critical mistakes that worsened the pandemic and led to more deaths.  That’s the argument put forth by the New Yorker’s Lawrence Wright in “The Plague Year,” an article that fills the magazine’s entire January issue.  Wright explains what went wrong in an interview with Senior National Correspondent Amna Nawaz.

 

 

"Why it could be years before Africans have access to coronavirus vaccines" PBS NewsHour 12/28/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The development of COVID-19 vaccines is raising questions about their rollout across the world.

As the richest nations buy up the lion's share of doses, how and when will developing countries be able to vaccinate their populations?

Countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo are now wrestling with that reality in a nation that's already endured recent epidemics.