You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

Last December, the coronavirus was sweeping across the US.

There weren't vaccines, not even for medical professionals, and one of the areas that

was hardest hit in this country was the Midwest.

At one point, Nebraska had the most cases per capita of any state.

So we called up Dr. Jasmine Marcellen, an infectious disease specialist in Omaha.

She treated serious COVID cases at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

And day after day, the pandemic was taking a toll.

We are trying to do our jobs, and it is just, I think, exhausting is the word.

And I used to tell people that I was fine when people would ask me how I'm doing, and

I don't anymore.

About a week after this conversation, the first vaccine dose was given to Sandra

Lindsay, a nurse in the US.

And it felt like hope to Dr. Marcellen and her colleagues.

There was anticipation that maybe there was a light at the end of the tunnel.

As time went on, more people in Omaha would get vaccinated.

But Dr. Marcellen didn't see it making a difference for all of her patients.

The hospital was still full.

She was getting too many COVID cases among black and Latino patients, especially.

By the time people get to the hospital to see me in the hospital as an infectious disease

doctor, it's too late.

I mean, we had to be out there trying to figure out where is the need, and the need is not

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