Minnesota is trying to bridge two issues at once — getting as many older people vaccinated as quickly as possible, while also making sure racial and ethnic communities hardest hit by the virus have access to vaccines.
Katie Howie has photographed more than 115 people for her project, “By a Thread: Pandemic Portraits.” She describes the project as a living history because the people she photographs also share thoughts about their lives during the pandemic.
In some countries, people are grumbling about the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines. But there are 130 countries that "are yet to administer a single dose," according to UNICEF. That's 2.5 billion people who have been shut out of the global vaccine campaign.
Doctors who treat pain say threats of violence escalated markedly in recent years as mounting legal and regulatory pressure stemming from the deadly opioid epidemic led many to prescribe alternatives and taper their patients off addictive painkillers.
Measures like masks and social distancing have kept the flu in check this season, said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University. But Schaffner says there's more to it: Kids — habitual superspreaders — are staying home.
Nearly 12 percent of Minnesota residents have now received at least their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, as the pace of vaccinations in the state has ticked upward in recent days.
The average daily number of newly confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States dipped below 100,000 in recent days for the first time in months, but experts cautioned that infections remain high and precautions to slow the pandemic must remain in place.
Even when forced online by the pandemic, music therapy sessions continue to help patients in some ways talk therapy can't. "Music is this portal — this instrument that the brain connects with," says one therapist and COVID-19 long-hauler.
Readers are asking about vaccine protocols, the safest way to take off a mask and whether it's risky to engage in therapeutic cuddling sessions with goats.
Minnesota’s COVID-19 vaccination rollout has hit another milestone: People are now getting vaccinated at their local retail pharmacies. And with appointments opening up at some Thrifty White, Walmart and Walgreens pharmacies, it’s one step closer to normalcy.