The Curve: Vaccines for all, sooner than we thought
Welcome back to another edition of The Curve: Pandemic news in your inbox for Monday, March 15.
Last week, president Joe Biden announced that he would direct every state to make vaccines available for every American by May 1.
Today, we’ll explore how we might get there and take a look back at where we’ve been as we continue to remember the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
⏱ The latest
A look at the picture in Ohio: Another 893 new cases reported
And here’s what things are like across the country: Latest case count in the U.S.
Following a COVID vaccine: Makeshift shot clinic runs like a machine
In my latest story for The Columbus Dispatch, I followed the path a dose of COVI-19 vaccine takes at Ohio State University’s mass vaccination clinic at the Schottenstein Center. It’s a long, winding process yet an efficient one, I discovered.
Dentists and midwives giving shots, troops to help: How Biden is expanding COVID-19 vaccinations
As previously mentioned, the president wants to open coronavirus vaccines to all Americans by May 1. In reality, it may take months longer to inoculate most U.S. adults. To get there, dentists, midwives and troops will help give the shots to people, reports Michael Collins for USA Today.
🗓 A year of COVID
It’s been one year since the pandemic arrived in the United States and life changed.
How Ohio's 'unsung heroes' bring vaccination to you
In the year since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the battle lines of against the virus have shifted from intensive care units to vaccination clinics. In another story I wrote for The Columbus Dispatch, I took a look at some of the behind-the-scenes people who help make the entire vaccine rollout happen.
Churches mark a year of virus deaths with flag displays
For this story in The Columbus Dispatch, reporter Danae King talked with central Ohio churches that are trying to commemorate the more than half-a-million lives lost to the pandemic. Many are using flags to denote the lives lost, King reports.
A year ago, Ohio closed all its schools to curb COVID. When will they be normal again?
Ohio was one of the first states to shutter schools when the coronavirus pandemic began over a year ago now. The year since has been filled with online learning and on again and off again plans to return in person. In this story for The Columbus Dispatch, my colleagues Alissa Widman Neese and Megan Henry explore the question of when schools might actually return to normal.
📰 Good reads
Here's how to plan to get your COVID-19 vaccine in Columbus
COVID-19 vaccines are now open to all Ohioans age 50 and older and to select groups of essential workers and people with severe medical conditions. In this how-to guide for The Columbus Dispatch, I try to spell out how central Ohioans can go about getting a shot.
When will I get my third COVID stimulus check? It depends.
It’s the question every American wants to know right now: When will I get my latest “stimmy?” The answer will differ from person to person but to put it simply: soon. In this story for USA Today, Jessica Menton goes into detail about who will get the $1,400 checks and when they’ll start showing up in bank accounts, if they haven’t already.
Ohio medical board reopens 91 sexual assault cases
In non-COVID news, the State Medical Board of Ohio announced last week that it would reopen 91 cases of sexual misconduct in the wake of an investigation against former Ohio State doctor Richard Strauss. Strauss committed suicide in 2005 but the fallout from allegations against him continues throughout the state. My colleague Eric Lagatta and I dug into the medical board’s final report on sexual misconduct for The Columbus Dispatch.