In our continuing series looking at the latest medical research and news on COVID-19, we speak with nurse and UCLA professor Kristen R Choi. 

Topics today include:

• CA officials say they’ll be reserving 40 percent of vaccines to areas that are hardest hit by COVID, to help address racial disparities 

• LA’s winter COVID surge killed Latino and Black people two to three times the rate of white people

• There’s a school nurse shortage - what does that mean for the prospects and success of school reopening?

  • Plus, what are the effects of schools not reopening on kids’ mental health?

• Should you get the COVID vaccine if you are pregnant? There’s not a lot of data

• Less healthcare workers have COVID in LA County, because many have been vaccinated

• Should you be concerned about getting a delayed second dose?

• The first non-humans get vaccinated: orangutans and bonobos at the San Diego Zoo 

• CA’s “My Turn” vaccine appointment system has some...issues

• EU regulators start reviewing Russia’s vaccine 

• Over 12,000 COVID cases reported in the state’s child care centers

​With guest host Libby Denkmann

Guest:

Kristen R. Choi, professor of nursing and public health at UCLA; registered nurse practicing at Gateways Hospital, based in Echo Park