- A woman wears a face mask standing near a display for the upcoming Lunar New Year, the Year of the Rat, in Beijing, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020. Chinese health authorities urged people in the city of Wuhan to avoid crowds and public gatherings, after warning on Wednesday that a new viral illness that has infected hundreds and caused at least nine deaths could spread further. (Photo Credit: Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo)
- A security guard wears gloves while working during an NBA basketball game between the Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Clippers Thursday, March 5, 2020, in Houston. The NBA has told players to avoid high-fiving fans and strangers and avoid taking any item for autographs, the league's latest response in its ongoing monitoring of the coronavirus crisis. (Photo Credit: David J. Phillip/AP Photo)
- A woman is taken on a stretcher by healthcare professionals into the United Memorial Medical Center after going through testing for COVID-19 Thursday, March 19, 2020, in Houston. People were lined up in their cars in a line that stretched over two miles to be tested in the drive-thru testing for coronavirus. (Photo Credit: David J. Phillip/AP Photo)
- Dr. Joseph Varon prepares to enter the COVID-19 unit at Houston's United Memorial Medical Center in May 2020. With him are nurses Tanna Ingraham (left) and Jerusha Harshman (right). (Photo Credit: Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
- Harris County Public Health Executive Director Dr. Umair Shah talks about contact tracing and the recent spike in COVD-19 cases in Harris County, Thursday, June 25, 2020, in Houston. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday that the state is facing a "massive outbreak" in the coronavirus pandemic and that some new local restrictions may be needed to protect hospital space for new patients. (Photo Credit: David J. Phillip/AP Photo)
- Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), holds up a model of COVID-19, known as coronavirus, during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the plan to research, manufacture and distribute a coronavirus vaccine, known as Operation Warp Speed, Thursday, July 2, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Photo Credit: Saul Loeb/AP Photo)
- Photographs of staff working at the Coronavirus Unit at United Memorial Medical Center hang on the wall Monday, July 6, 2020, in Houston. The photographs help patients know who is behind the mask. (Photo Credit: David J. Phillip/AP Photo)
- Dr. Joseph Varon, right, leads a team as they try to save the life of a patient unsuccessfully inside the Coronavirus Unit at United Memorial Medical Center, Monday, July 6, 2020, in Houston. Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 in the second-largest state in the U.S. have more than doubled in the last two weeks. (Photo Credit: David J. Phillip/AP Photo)
- Nurse Michele Younkin (left). comforts Romelia Navarro as she sits at the bedside of her dying husband, Antonio Navarro, in St. Jude Medical Center's COVID-19 unit in Fullerton, Calif on July 31. Antonio was Younkin's first COVID-19 patient to pass on her watch. (Photo Credit: AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
- In this Nov. 9, 2020, file photo, an ad for COVID-19 testing reflects on glass at a bus stop, as pedestrians walk past Pfizer world headquarters in New York. Pfizer and BioNTech say they've won permission Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2020, for emergency use of their COVID-19 vaccine in Britain, the world’s first coronavirus shot that’s backed by rigorous science -- and a major step toward eventually ending the pandemic. (Photo Credit: Bebeto Matthews/AP Photo)
- Medical staff member Susan Paradela places her hand on a patient in the COVID-19 intensive care unit at the United Memorial Medical Center on Dec. 7 in Houston. (Photo Credit: Go Nakamura/Getty Images)
- Nurse Nicole Chang celebrates after receiving one of the first injections of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center on Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020 in Westwood, Calif. (Photo Credit: Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times via AP)
- Medical worker Melissa Fitzgerald begins to weep in an emotional response after receiving a COVID-19 vaccination Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020, on the Lummi Reservation, near Bellingham, Wash. Fitzgerald, a radiologic technician, has been treating coronavirus patients since the outbreak began on the reservation on her birthday in March and said it's been a long journey. The Native American tribe began rationing its first 300 doses of vaccine as it fights surging cases with a shelter-in-place order. (Photo Credit: Photo by Elaine Thompson/AP Photo)
Listen
Town Square with Ernie Manouse airs at 3 p.m. CT. Tune in on 88.7FM, listen online or subscribe to the podcast. Join the discussion at 888-486-9677, questions@townsquaretalk.org or @townsquaretalk.
The Year in COVID focuses on how a novel virus that began as a marketplace sickness became a global health crisis – and the worst in American history. What lessons have we learned as we enter the vaccination phase of the pandemic? This episode includes
- Dr. William Haseltine, a renowned global health expert and president of ACCESS Health International
- Dr. Catherine Troisi, infectious disease epidemiologist at UTHealth
- Dr. Kirstin Matthews, Fellow in Science and Technology Policy at Rice University's Baker Institute.
The photo gallery above contains the original captions to present a time capsule of our understanding, and progression, of COVID-19.
Town Square with Ernie Manouse is a gathering space for the community to come together and discuss the day's most important and pressing issues.
Audio from today’s show will be available after 5 p.m. CT. We also offer a free podcast here, on iTunes, and other apps.
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