COVID-19

About 70 million Americans are refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19, leaving an obvious question— what are those abstaining going to do? With the advancements in medicine there might be a daily option to fight the virus. A pill to fight the underlying symptoms and help contain the spread. Would you be willing to take it?

Mick Mulvaney joined The Bo Thompson Morning Show on Monday to discuss the burning topics in Washington from this past week. The former White House Chief of Staff covered a lot of ground on the debt ceiling, COVID-19 booster shots, and will defunct GOP Senator Liz Cheney be running for president? 

An article from the New York Daily News details how the U.S. is currently on the verge of surpassing the death toll from the 1918 Spanish Flu with the COVID-19 pandemic. In the "next day or two", side-by-side numbers show COVID-related U.S. deaths at 673,763, according to Johns Hopkins University data released on Sunday.

Vince Coakley reacts to the President Biden's speech from Thursday night and points out several instances where months ago Washington Democrats were NOT calling for COVID vaccine mandates. What changed and why has this come a political battle?

“This is not a decision that we or CDC have made lightly,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky. The CDC's director also noted that due to a high number of cases nationwide the agency is considering more steps to help curb the rate of infection."

“We’ve just had our highest numbers of cases and hospitalizations in about two months,” Cooper told reporters on Wednesday “There are a number of things, particularly in getting people vaccinated, that we are able to do because we’re in a state of emergency.” New cases have increased from near all-time lows.

"As people get out and about more, injuries from car crashes and other traumas are increasing, and the backlog of surgical procedures delayed by the pandemic have driven up demand for blood and platelets," The News & Observer reported. Delisha English, president and CEO of The Blood Connection, said this need is "unprecedented" and could last several weeks if the community "doesn’t take immediate action."

“We had a thousand new cases a day reported yesterday and today," Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen said Thursday. "That’s more than three times the number of cases we were seeing just two weeks ago." She went on to say the agency believes the spike of cases is due to the Fourth of July holiday. A majority of those as the Delta variant, first discovered in India.  

A group of healthcare professionals will be canvassing low-vaccinated neighborhoods in the Charlotte area to administer doses to eligible residents who want to be inoculated. The county also has a home-based vaccination request form on its website available for residents to use. As of now, over half of North Carolina's adult population are considered to be fully vaccinated.

The Medical Director of Infection Prevention for Atrium Health is not only one of the southeast's leading infectious disease experts, but has also been the face of Atrium's COVID-19 team over the last year. Passaretti was gracious enough to do a long-form interview in the Ty Boyd Studio.