News Room

New restrictions imposed on restaurants and other businesses this week by Gov. Steve Sisolak to curb the spread of COVID-19 raise a question: What’s the science behind them? The science is imperfect, broad in stroke and balanced by policy and political considerations, health authorities said. “The basic idea is we are trying to reduce the density of people in any environment,” said epidemiologist Brian Labus, a member of the governor’s medical advisory team on COVID-19.

Delivering an effective vaccine is only part of the equation. The region's recovery from COVID-19 also will hinge on Long Islanders' willingness to take the shot, experts say. The public's appetite for inoculations will be a wild card, said Julie Swann, an expert in health care supply chains who advised the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the H1N1 outbreak in 2009.

Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine candidate, announced earlier this month, comes with a major complication that could delay its distribution in rural areas and developing countries: It must be stored at the ultra-cold temperature of -70°C. That means the vaccine must be kept in specialized freezers that cost as much as $20,000 each and are rare outside of medical research facilities.

In Kalamazoo, Michigan, millions of vials of a covid-19 vaccine may soon be rolling off production lines. There are still many hurdles to leap before that vaccine – the candidate from US drug company Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech – or any other is approved and distributed, but governments, manufacturers and shipping firms around the world have already spent months preparing for what happens next.

The most recent McKinsey Global Survey on AI shows a 25% increase in use by companies over the prior year, a trend that shows no signs of slowing. At this pace, have we entered the Age of AI? Do we even need supply chain planners, or can we turn out the lights and go home, because we now live in a world of autonomous planning? The short answer is that planners are more important than ever, and not just because the hype may be ahead of the curve.