Pandemic Inflection Point: Drop In Cases Stalls, States Loosen Public Health Measures

Consider This from NPR

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🗓️ 4 March 2021

⏱️ 14 minutes

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Summary

In the U.S., the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines is improving every day, but hundreds of millions of people are still vulnerable. And now, with some states relaxing or eliminating public health measures altogether, many people live in places where the virus will be freer to spread unchecked.

KUT reporter Ashley Lopez reports on how business owners and employees are reacting to the rollback of COVID-19 restrictions in Texas.

And Rochelle Walensky, the new director for the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, tells NPR this could be a turning point in the pandemic — as more states face crucial decisions about whether to relax public health measures. Here's more from Walensky's interview with NPR's Ari Shapiro.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This week as the calendar rolled over to March, we entered month 12 of the global pandemic,
0:06.5	a full year, and we might look back on this week as a turning point.
0:11.5	I remain deeply concerned about a potential shift in the trajectory of the pandemic.
0:16.4	That's the new CDC director Dr. Rochelle Wollensky.
0:19.7	On Monday, she noted that in the U.S., our steep drop in New Coronavirus cases has leveled
0:26.1	off at what is still a very high number.
0:29.0	We cannot be resigned to 70,000 cases a day, 2000 daily deaths.
0:35.9	Please hear me clearly.
0:37.8	Now is not the time to relax the critical safeguards that we know can stop the spread of COVID-19
0:43.4	in our communities.
0:45.0	The very next day, it is now time to open Texas 100%.
0:53.9	Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced his state would end its mask mandate and allow businesses
0:58.9	to operate without any restrictions.
1:02.2	Mississippi did the same and other states may soon follow.
1:05.7	We now have vaccines.
1:08.6	Vaccines to protect Texans from COVID.
1:11.2	Speaking of vaccines, the president had this good news on Tuesday.
1:14.8	We're now on track to have enough vaccine supply for every adult in America by the end
1:20.6	of May.
1:21.6	President Biden said this is partly thanks to a vaccine from Johnson and Johnson that just
1:25.8	got emergency authorization from the FDA.
1:28.3	Please, please, it's not over yet.
	...

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