The pandemic has muted what the public hears about the still-raging opioid crisis, its desperation and deaths hovering like a silent virus. In Shelby County, 416 people died of opioid overdoses in 2020, 73 more than in 2019, itself a record year.
When it’s time to vaccinate school-age children and their teachers across Shelby County for the COVID-19 virus, teachers will be the first to get the vaccine.
The UK variant by mid-March could be the most dominant strain in the nation. Locally, scientists at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center are sequencing the virus identified by processing labs as looking similar to the UK strain.
There are a few things to know about Charisse Madlock-Brown before you know she is working on one of the biggest clinical databases in medical history. Of course, it’s COVID-19 related. And it’s come together in less than a year. She skipped her senior year of high school in Iowa City, Iowa, to start college… Read More
Shelby County and counties across the nation are charged with making sure the COVID-19 vaccine is distributed equitably. Early numbers suggest the process is flawed, or at best, the basic reporting system needs work. Nearly a month after immunizations started in Tennessee, only 3.8% of the shots (9,349 doses) statewide have been given to Black… Read More
Dr. Manoj Jain, an infectious disease expert in Memphis, recently said of COVID-19: “Inescapable …. you will either get the disease or get the vaccine.” As we near the one-year mark of the pandemic, the early days of the vaccine rollout have been uneven. Perhaps it was naïve to expect anything different. Perhaps this, like… Read More
The phone line — 901-222-SHOT (7468) — to schedule appointments (for those without internet access) was scheduled to open this morning, but Health Department staff took appointments over the weekend, according to director Alisa Haushalter. The online signup opened last Friday.
When the Health Department resumes vaccinations Tuesday, Jan. 12, it will be set up to administer 80-100 shots an hour in a drive-thru process at the Pipkin Building, 940 Early Maxwell Blvd. The clinic will run Tuesdays-Saturdays from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. through the end of January, vaccinating only people who registered through the SignUpGenius app… Read More
