Blake Farmer
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In areas overwhelmed by COVID cases, hospitals must rely on traveling nurses to operate ICUs. Hospitals pay a premium for that temporary help, while also struggling to keep their staff nurses happy.
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Congregations are figuring out how to safely meet in person now that the COVID-19 vaccine is more widely available. But vaccination remains divisive even as it allows them to come together again.
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Some immigrant groups are closing the ethnic gap on COVID-19 shots. For many Kurdish Americans, their fears about vaccination are entangled with their experiences in refugee camps after fleeing Iraq.
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A majority of white, rural conservatives in Tennessee are open to getting the vaccine at some point, but at least 45% won't consider it. Rates in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi are also lagging.
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Hospitalizations are down 62% for childhood respiratory illnesses, a study shows. Masking and physical distancing are keeping a variety of viruses in check, but will these behaviors last?
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As the pace of vaccination picks up, so do reports of spoiled doses. In Tennessee, close to 5,000 doses have been lost, prompting more oversight from state and federal officials.
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Black Americans are getting vaccinated at lower rates than whites. A new push to send vaccines to community health centers is intended to help quickly bridge that gap.
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Health officials are changing how they assess the regional nonprofits that find organs to transplant. The goal is to understand, and eventually fix, the geographic disparities in organ availability.
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A snafu with Operation Warp Speed leaves at least 14 states short of the vaccine doses they were promised. Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks with WPLN's Blake Farmer about what that means in Tennessee.
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Last spring, nurses and doctors traveled to New York and other COVID-19 hot spots to help overwhelmed hospitals. But with the virus spreading everywhere, hospitals now have nowhere to turn for help.