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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.
2021 brings some hope. COVID vaccines continue to rollout, and we're entering the next phases of vaccination.
But here's a hard reality:
Tens of thousands of Americans have died from COVID over the holiday season, in just the past week and a half.
What do we need to know, and to continue to do, to end the suffering of this pandemic?
Today, vaccine experts from the Mayo Clinic and Baylor College of Medicine join us to discuss the progress of vaccines and vaccinations, nationally and locally, as well as other developments like COVID variants. Listeners call in with their concerns and questions.
Guests are:
- Professor of Medicine & Infectious Diseases, and Distinguished Investigator at the Mayo Clinic
- Director of the Mayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group
- Assistant Professor in Tropical Medicine and in Infectious Disease at Baylor College of Medicine
COVID vaccine resources, including vaccination locations for Phase 1A and 1B:
Houston Public Media reporter Matt Harab also joins Ernie with headlines from today’s Mayor of Houston press conference, including:
- Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner just received his COVID-19 vaccine, along with Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo and other city officials.
- The first free COVID-19 vaccination clinic opened up this weekend, and the Mayor says the response was "massive" in terms of people signing up.
- On Saturday, 1008 people were vaccinated in Harris County, Sunday 986, and today, according to the director of the Houston Health Department, Dr. Stephen Williams, 730 people at the Bayou City Event Center had been vaccinated.
- The city has set up an online portal, for people most at risk for COVID (at least 65 years old, or at least 16 years old with certain chronic medical conditions) to sign up for their vaccine. This group is known as Phase 1B.
- However, appointments at the clinic are booked through the end of January, and the Department is not taking additional vaccine appointments at this time.
- Mayor Turner said that the city is hoping to expand capacity and to build a "mega site" for people to get vaccinated.
- Turner said he hopes that site will be available this Saturday. He did not reveal the exact location at the time of this press conference.
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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