COVID-19 Variants; Ramping Up Vaccinations to Get to Herd Immunity

First, Leslie gives her take on today's news in her 'Ripped from the Headlines' segment.

Here are the stories that she covered:

1. WASHINGTON POST: "White House expected to tell governors they will get more coronavirus vaccine starting next week"
2. Axios-Ipsos poll: Trust in federal coronavirus response surges
3. WASHINGTON POST: "Biden to reopen ACA insurance marketplaces as pandemic has cost millions of Americans their coverage"
4. AXIOS: "McConnell drops filibuster demand, paving way for power-sharing deal"
5. AXIOS: "Sanders says Democrats will push coronavirus relief package through with simple majority"

Then, Leslie is joined by Dr. Bob Bollinger, the Raj and Kamla Gupta Professor of Infectious Diseases at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Bollinger holds joint appointments in International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and in Community Public Health at the JH School of Nursing.

They discuss the latest news surrounding COVID-19, including:
- Moderna announcing that its COVID-19 vaccine is effective against new variants of the virus that first appeared in the U.K. and in South Africa
- President Biden saying that he thinks that any American adult who wants a vaccine can expect to receive one by spring
- What rate per day that the U.S. needs to be vaccinating people at in order to reach herd immunity against the virus
- Communities of color falling behind in America's vaccine effort

Dr. Bollinger is Founding Director of the Center for Clinical GlobaJohns Hopkins Center for Clinical Global Health Education (CCGHE). Their website is main.ccghe.net and their Facebook page is Johns Hopkins Center for Clinical Global Health Education.