Coronavirus Update With Dr. Dennis Norem

Dr. Norem made his weekly visit to the show to give us the latest on the coronavirus, COVID-19, and the vaccine rollout.

It seems that Illinois has a bit of a problem when it comes to distributing the COVID-19 vaccine. Illinois ranks 36th in the country when it comes to administering vaccines obtained by the state. Here's what the current numbers look like:

Doses distributed to state: 2,089,050
Doses administered: 1,146,024
Percentage of distributed vaccines that have been administered: 67.89

To give you a sense of how that stacks up with the rest of the country.

North Dakota is leading the country in getting vaccinations actually in people's arms:

Doses distributed to state: 131,625
Doses administered: 126,822
Percentage of distributed vaccines that have been administered: 96.35

North Dakota is obviously a much different story than Illinois with such a small population, but other states with large populations have done much better than Illinois:

Virginia ranks 9th in the country:

Doses distributed to state: 1,387,775
Doses administered: 1,103,370
Percentage of distributed vaccines that have been administered: 79.51

Michigan ranks 15th:

Doses distributed to state: 1,639,575
Doses administered: 1,251,940
Percentage of distributed vaccines that have been administered: 76.36

Even Texas, with a much bigger population than Illinois, ranks much higher at 18th:

Doses distributed to state: 4,402,275
Doses administered: 3,246,638
Percentage of distributed vaccines that have been administered: 73.75

We asked Dr. Norem why he thinks Illinois lacks so far behind and he basically summed it all up to Illinois not being prepared. There was little to no planning before a vaccine was available and when it was, the system was overwhelmed.

We also revisited some of our recurring topics. Mainly, strain variants.

One of the European variants has been found in one of the collar counties and will likely spread from there. There still isn't enough information about the new variants to know for sure but it seems that while this variant could spread more easily and possibly be more dangerous, the current vaccines seem to still be effective.

Big thanks to Dr. Norem for stopping by once again. We learn something every week.

Dr. Norem joins the show every Monday morning at 7:05.