Getting Our Bearings in the Never-Ending Pandemic

It is hard not to have a billion questions about what’s going on.

Vehicles queue for COVID-19 vaccinations at Oaks Park. (Justin Yau)

If you have been following the news recently, you know that COVID-19 is spreading more than ever. But with so much conflicting information, it is hard not to have a billion questions about what’s going on. If vaccines are so good, why is COVID spreading so much? Why does the CDC keep changing its recommendations? Most importantly, dear God, when will COVID end?

COVID sucks for a lot of reasons. People are dying. Schools are closed. Les Schwab has stopped serving complimentary popcorn. But one of the worst parts of COVID is, we are about to enter the third year of a pandemic that is showing no signs of slowing down. This is incredibly troubling and probably leaves you with a lot of questions.

Today, we take a break from throwing our hands in the air in hopelessness, and have all of our most difficult COVID questions answered. In this week’s episode of the Dive podcast presented by Willamette Week, we are joined by tri-county health officer Dr. Jennifer Vines.

Vines joined us almost exactly six months ago, back when we were a little earlier on in the Greek alphabet. And look. I’m no tinfoil hat conspiracy theorist. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have plenty of questions as to why our community has handled COVID the way it has in the past couple years. So now, we get a chance to get a decision maker on the phone and ask her to explain what the hell is going on.

We also take time this week to do what we always do: get you all caught up on the biggest stories of the week. Oh, and shout-out to Dave, our listener of the week. You’re the GOAT.

Listen on Apple Podcasts.

Listen on Spotify.

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