News Room

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved two COVID-19 vaccines under the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) process. With these approvals, the immunization of health care workers and those in long-term care facilities has begun, providing them with a measure of protection against COVID-19. Waiting in the immunization queue are essential workers and at-risk populations. The expectation is that vaccines will be available for all who wish to be immunized by the middle of 2021.

Washington state will rely on an honor system to determine eligibility for COVID-19 vaccinations, so those administering vaccines do not have to police who qualifies. The state plans to launch an online questionnaire — called PhaseFinder — soon where people can determine their own eligibility for vaccination. When more vaccination sites are available, members of the public could present screenshots of their questionnaire results at vaccination sites, said Mary Huynh, a deputy director at the state Department of Health. The state also plans to provide a template letter for employers to vouch for workers’ eligibility.

The 747 is quickly flying away from passenger service. But is the era of the four-engine jumbo jet really dead? Not if you like to get everything from high-value fish to higher-valued COVID-19 vaccine delivered. Just in time for the holidays, UPS got its own eagerly-anticipated package—a brand new 747 8F freighter. On December 14, the $419 million dollar plane was ferried from the Boeing plant and airfield in Everett, Washington to its new UPS home at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, where UPS has its largest air-sorting hub, WorldPort. The new plane is the 20th 747 8F to be delivered to UPS, part of a total of 28 aircraft ordered by the cargo carrier.

Never have operations research and public health collided so magnificently than in 2020. The world requires modeling to predict how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting communities around the world on a daily basis. Dr. Pinar Keskinocak is leading this daunting charge. Keskinocak is the director of the Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems at Georgia Tech, where she also serves as a professor and the William W. George Chair. She’s also leading some of the nation’s top COVID-19 pandemic research and became president of The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) this year. 

An N.C. State University expert says the COVID-19 vaccines have gone through extensive testing before rolling out to the public, but it might take some time before everyone is vaccinated. Dr. Julie Swann, the department head, was on loan to the CDC during the H1N1 Pandemic in 2009 and 2010 and has been studying pandemics for years. She is also leading a team that’s working with the Council for State and Territorial Epidemiologist and the CDC, forecasting and modeling the dissemination of results out to the public.