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Coronavirus Watch: What this flu season tells us about COVID-19


As COVID-19 raged last year, the flu was largely quelled.

Experts say that's because of high vaccination rates and enhanced health precautions. But what was a match for the flu was no match for the highly transmissible coronavirus.

It's Monday, and this is Coronavirus Watch from the Paste BN Network. Here's the news to know today, as of 1:30 p.m. EST.

  • World Health Organization experts are set to arrive in China to investigate the origins of the pandemic, China's government announced. 
  • President-elect Joe Biden was scheduled to receive his second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Monday. He got his first shot on Dec. 21 as part of an effort to promote the vaccine's safety and effectiveness.
  • Normally, a workplace death in the United States is met with a swift and thorough response. But OSHA hasn't inspected 26 out of the 65 meatpacking plants where at least one worker died of COVID-19, a Paste BN investigation shows.
  • Millions of Americans with intellectual disabilities, many of whom are unable to physically distance, are still waiting for vaccinations.

Which hospitals in your community are getting hit hardest? Paste BN found 305 hospitals reporting full intensive care units as of Jan. 7. You can look up your area hospital's capacities here.

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– Jay Cannon, Paste BN Network and Wires Editor, @JayTCannon on Twitter