News Room

As the Western world was first hit by mass spread of the novel coronavirus last spring, governments acted with near uniformity in enacting shutdowns of society, shuttering schools and all establishments deemed “non-essential.” Amid spiking rates of hospitalizations, deaths, and fears about the virus, the vast majority of Americans accepted the multifaceted challenges of lockdown. There were factors that pushed the public to give elected officials much leeway. A pandemic of this sort had never been dealt with in the nation’s recent memory and lack of preparedness was understandable. 

This week, a widely shared tweet falsely claimed that because a COVID-19 vaccine is stored at ultracold temperatures it is not a vaccine, but rather a transfection agent used to genetically modify human beings. “Any vaccine that needs to be shipped and stored at -80 degrees isn’t a vaccine. It’s a transfection agent, kept alive so it can infect your cells and transfer genetic material. Don’t let them fool you. This is genetic manipulation of humans on a massive scale. Shut it down,” the tweet falsely stated.

A look at false and misleading claims and videos circulating one month after the 2020 election and as COVID-19 cases surge. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out.

A new study indicates Illinois saw a significant increase in non-COVID 19 deaths earlier this year as the pandemic began. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign looked at data from March through May of this year and compared the numbers to previous years. They discovered roughly 120,000 “excess deaths” that could not directly be connected to COVID. “These are things that in many ways can't be explained,” said Dr. Sheldon Jacobson, a Founder Professor of Computer Science at UIUC. “They could be possibly because people are not getting treatment for acute conditions or they are not practicing preventative medicine. It could be mental health issues.”

With two vaccines expected to receive federal approval in the U.S. within a matter of weeks, hopes for beating the coronavirus are looking up. Yet for millions of workers and businesses, the emerging immunizations also raise a host of questions, not the least of which is this: Can your employer require that you get vaccinated? For now, vaccination plans are focused on prioritizing who will receive the first doses, beginning with those who are most vulnerable as well as most exposed to the disease.