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Sam Whitehead

Latest Stories (8)

U.S. officials want to end the HIV epidemic by 2030. Many stakeholders think they won’t.

Apr 20, 2023
The federal government’s ambitious plan to end the HIV epidemic, launched in 2019, has generated new ways to reach at-risk populations in targeted communities across the South. But health officials, advocates, and people living with HIV worry significant headwinds will keep the program from reaching its goals.
The White House displays a red ribbon for World AIDS Day on Dec. 01, 2021. In 2019, then-President Donald Trump launched a federal initiative to end HIV.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

To encourage vaccinations, Georgia county calls on moms

Jul 7, 2021
A large, diverse county is betting local mothers can help it reduce hesitancy about the COVID-19 vaccine and boost inoculation rates.
A film crew monitors a shot of Normica Provitt discussing her decision to get vaccinated against COVID-19. She’s one of the moms featured in a county ad campaign.
Sam Whitehead

Unused sports stadiums transformed into mass-vaccination sites

Feb 15, 2021
Large sports facilities across the country are handling a new kind of crowd: people looking to get inoculated against COVID-19.
People trickle into Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta to receive COVID-19 vaccinations at the site run by the Fulton County Board of Health.
Sam Whitehead

Researchers work to diversify clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccine

Nov 10, 2020
Researchers say they must overcome deep mistrust of medical research in the Black, Latinx and Native American communities in recruiting volunteers for vaccine testing.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Scientists look to drugs already in development to combat COVID-19

Feb 28, 2020
The new coronavirus has researchers looking through their back catalogs for possible solutions.
Mike Natchus, who works at the Emory Institute for Drug Development in Atlanta, examines one of the compounds used in the lab where EIDD 2801 was developed.
Sam Whitehead/WABE

Inside the “ER of public health” where the CDC is running its COVID-19 response

Feb 27, 2020
During public health crises like the COVID-19 outbreak, the CDC brings together different parts of the agency at its Emergency Operations Center.
Dr. Jay Butler, deputy director for infectious diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, stands in the agency’s Emergency Operations Center in Atlanta. This has been the “nerve center” of the CDC’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak since January.
Sam Whitehead/WABE

Keeping esports athletes healthy is more than just fun and games

Aug 19, 2019
Health care professionals are starting to pay attention to people who play video games at the professional level.
James Heseltine, 20, takes the impact test. The impact test is a concussion baseline test that measures the 5 executive functions of the brain, including visual memory, verbal memory and reaction composite.
Evey Wilson for Marketplace

A rural community loses its hospital — a standalone ER fills the gap

May 14, 2019
Quick thinking and a $2.2 million investment preserved the emergency room.
A standalone emergency room in Georgia.
Sam Whitehead