COVID travel mask mandates drop; plus, 'Oprahdemics'

It's Been a Minute

NPR

News Commentary, Society & Culture, News, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 8.8K Ratings

🗓️ 22 April 2022

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

With travel mask mandates dropping, increasing cases, and more COVID variants, precaution exhaustion is real, but the pandemic is far from over. Guest host Juana Summers talks with science writer Katherine J. Wu of The Atlantic about how the U.S. has moved from a collective approach to an individual-focused mindset in its handling of the pandemic.

Then, Juana is joined by Kellie Carter Jackson and Leah Wright Rigueur, hosts of the new Oprahdemics podcast, to talk about Oprah Winfrey's reign as 'Queen of Talk' and her influence on the culture.

You can follow us on Twitter @NPRItsBeenAMin and email us at [email protected].

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Anna Stepdater, Maeve.
0:04.0	This week on the show, how the US is shifting away from a collective approach to the pandemic,
0:09.1	plus a chat about the ultimate influencer, Oprah.
0:12.2	Alright, let's start the show.
0:13.9	You're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR.
0:20.3	I'm Anna Summers.
0:21.7	Y'all, we have made it to the weekend.
0:24.8	I just picked up a growler of cold brew and I keep refreshing my weather app because temperatures
0:29.6	here might be in the 80s.
0:32.7	And while all of that has me really excited and looking forward to the summer, there are
0:37.5	also some changes in how we are dealing with the pandemic that I think we've got to talk
0:41.6	about.
0:44.1	This week, a federal judge struck down the requirement to wear masks on flights, on trains,
0:48.8	and other forms of public transportation.
0:51.2	And that comes as coronavirus cases in the US and worldwide have been ticking upwards
0:56.7	in the past couple of weeks.
0:59.0	In some ways, this summer feels full of promise.
1:03.3	But there are also a lot of lingering questions about the response to the pandemic in this new
1:07.9	phase.
1:09.0	And also, who's left out of this conversation?
1:12.4	We know that there are large, large, large swaths of the population that remain vulnerable.
1:17.5	I mean, really just watching the CDC's list of people who are at high risk of, you know,
	...

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