Cards from local schoolchildren bring special greetings, including "You deserve 100 million candy canes."

Health care workers, who have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, will be the first tier of Vanderbilt University Medical Center employees to receive vaccine to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Against the noisy background of masking debates, surges, flattening curves, warp speed initiatives, conflicting messages and misinformation, political controversies, not to mention a revolutionary mRNA technology, millions of people are deciding whether to take the COVID-19 vaccine.

In fall 2020, 9% of Tennessee children were uninsured, more than twice the level at the same time in 2019, according to a new poll conducted by the Vanderbilt Center for Child Health Policy. Just 4% of children were uninsured in fall 2019, the poll found.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center has a new weapon in the fight against COVID-19 — an investigational antibody treatment approved last month for emergency use in COVID-19 outpatients at high risk of developing severe disease or requiring hospital care.

This spring in the U.S., there were widespread delays in elective health care procedures and screenings. Hospitals, in observance of federal guidelines, were, for a time, conserving beds and protective equipment in preparation for a surge in COVID-19 admissions. And, perhaps on a more prolonged basis, patients in many areas of the country stayed away due to anxiety over catching COVID-19 from other patients or their health care team.

The development of the vaccines, monoclonal antibodies and antiviral drugs that ultimately will defeat COVID-19 wouldn’t have been possible had it not been for the unflagging and selfless efforts of a global army of research nurses, laboratory personnel, recruiters and other staff.