0:08 – How long will it take to develop a Covid-19 vaccine, and what can the public expect from the human vaccine trials underway right now? Art Reingold is the Division Head of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health.
0:34 – There has been an explosion of Covid-19 cases in U.S. meatpacking plants among workers. Tyson, JBS and Smithfield workers have died from the virus. Investigative reporter Leah Douglas (@leahjdouglas) of the nonprofit investigative news outlet Food and Environment Reporting Network has been tracking the spread of Covid-19 in the food system, and says it is likely being massively undercounted, in part because of the reticence of meat companies to disclose the extent of the sickness. Read Douglas’s reporting here.
1:08 – A recent study of misinformation in Nature mapped the online spread of pro- and anti-vaccination views. It suggested anti-vaccination social media posters are more successful at posting their content where “undecided” viewers will see it, even though anti-vaccination advocates are a smaller portion of users. We talk with Neil Johnson, professor of physics at George Washington University and lead author of the study.
1:18 – What’s the crossover between anti-vaccination and anti-lockdown views at recent protests at state houses across the U.S.? We speak with Devin Burghart (@dburghart), executive director of the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights, based in Seattle, which examines racist, anti-Semitic, and far right social movements.
1:34 – An appeals court has paved the way for a massive, polluting coal export terminal at the Port of Oakland. We get the latest update from journalist Darwin BondGraham, news editor of Berkeleyside’s forthcoming Oakland newsroom.
Photo by Don Barrett