Category: International

Americans got some good news on Wednesday morning when the White House announced that it had secured another 100 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar released a statement afterward saying the U.S. will now have enough supply “to vaccinate every American who wants it by June 2021.”

Even with these announcements questions remain on how exactly everyone will get vaccinated. States are having varying levels of success with the vaccine rollout process. Dr. Jose Romero, Arkansas health secretary and chair of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention immunization advisory committee, discusses the success Arkansas has had with vaccine distribution and the lessons learned in the process.

In Seattle, NPR’s Will Stone has been following vaccine distribution, including to health care workers who have been caring for COVID-19 patients for nearly a year.

One of the questions that remains as more people get vaccinated is should volunteers who got a placebo during the vaccine trials now be offered the real thing? NPR’s Ari Shapiro speaks with Dr. Steven Goodman of Stanford School of Medicine who is advising the Food and Drug Administration about this.

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Every year, Americans buy tens of millions of Christmas trees. But decorative evergreens don’t just magically show up on corner lots, waiting to find a home in your living room. There are a bunch of fascinating steps that determine exactly how many Christmas trees get sold, and how expensive they are.

On this episode of Planet Money, NPR’s Nick Fountain and Robert Smith visit the world’s largest auction of Christmas trees — and then see how much green New Yorkers are willing to throw down for some greenery.

Listen to more episodes of Planet Money on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo acknowledged who was behind the cyber attack on Friday, saying Russia used third-party software to get inside the systems of multiple U.S. government agencies.

But the attack didn’t happen last week. It started in March. To help make sense of how an attack of this magnitude went undiscovered for months, NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly spoke with Fiona Hill, who served as President Trump’s most senior Russia adviser on the National Security Council until last year.

Now that it’s clear who was behind the attack, how do deal with Russia will be a big question for the incoming Biden administration. NPR’s Russia correspondent Lucian Kim explains how the U.S.-Russia relationship may change as Biden takes office in January.

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An emerging coronavirus relief package may not do enough to help restaurants hobbled by the pandemic, many of which have struggled to make ends meet all year — with 100,000 restaurants closed on a permanent or long-term basis, according to a survey from the National Restaurant Association.

Andrew Genung, the writer behind the restaurant industry newsletter Family Meal, explains why so many restaurants did not get enough help in the first round of relief passed by Congress early in the pandemic.

Nya Marshall, owner of Ivy Kitchen and Cocktails in Detroit, describes the adjustments necessary to run her restaurant this year.

And at least one restaurant-adjacent business is doing well: Auction Factory, which repairs and sells liquidated restaurant equipment. Cleveland-based owner Russell Cross tells NPR his warehouse is full of equipment from shuttered restaurants.

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Prisons and jails are hotbeds for COVID-19. Public health experts say they should be given early access to a coronavirus vaccine. But only six states have prioritized vaccination for people who are incarcerated.

Sharon Dolovich, director of UCLA’s Prison Law & Policy Program, tells NPR why the debate over vaccinating inmates is a particularly American one.

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Electors in every state officially sealed Joe Biden’s presidential victory this week, and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., congratulated the president-elect on Tuesday.

Biden is now 36 days away from inauguration, waiting to face a public health and economic crisis that is growing by the day.

NPR political correspondent Asma Khalid reports on the economic experts close to Biden’s team who are advising the next president on how he can offer economic relief to Americans without Congress.

And Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., tells NPR why he’s urging Democrats to reject an emerging pandemic relief package if it does not include direct cash payments to individual Americans. Sanders spoke to NPR’s Ailsa Chang.

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In an Oregon hospital, a disabled woman fought for her life as her friends and advocates pleaded for proper care. Her case raises the question: Are disabled lives equally valued during a pandemic?

NPR investigations correspondent Joseph Shapiro reports on what happened to Sarah McSweeney.

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The U.S. officially began vaccinating people against COVID-19 on Monday, starting with Sandra Lindsay, a critical care nurse in New York City. The first vaccination came the same day that the country hit another grim milestone of 300,000 dead from the disease.

Though vaccinations have begun, the pandemic is still raging and affecting people in all kinds of ways, including their relationships with partners, family and friends.

We asked you to share your questions with us on how to navigate those changing relationships. To help answer those questions, we’re joined by Dr. Lexx Brown-James, a marriage and family therapist and sexologist based in St. Louis, and NPR’s Cory Turner, who covers parenting and education.

To hear more about how parents can help their kids feel less anxious right now, check out this episode of NPR’s Life Kit podcast. Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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The Food and Drug Administration has issued emergency use authorizations for two monoclonal antibody treatments for COVID-19 – one produced by Eli Lilly and another by Regeneron. But emergency use authorization doesn’t assure the drugs are effective.

In this episode of Short Wave, NPR’s daily science podcast, science correspondent Richard Harris explains how the new treatments work — and whether they could really make a difference for patients with COVID-19.

Listen to more episodes of Short Wave on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

The Food and Drug Administration could vote as soon as Thursday to approve a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer for emergency use authorization in the United States.

Speaking to NPR this week, FDA head Dr. Stephen Hahn reiterated the government’s commitment to vaccine safety. But public opinion polls suggest many Americans are still skeptical of COVID-19 vaccines, and misinformation about them has been spreading online.

Renee DiResta of the Stanford Internet Observatory tells NPR why misinformation often takes hold where people are not necessarily looking for it.

NPR’s Adrian Florido reports public health experts are worried that Latinos and African Americans — communities that are disproportionately affected by COVID-19 — may be less likely to get vaccinated.

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