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The Big Ten and the Pac-12 have “delayed” (a.k.a. cancelled) fall sports, an effective one-size-fits-all stay-off-the field order for these student-athletes, due to COVID-19. Intercollegiate sports at numerous institutions are threatened this fall, with winter and spring sports likely in jeopardy as well. 

Social media has forever changed our society and how people do business. A 2013 report by J.D. Power found nearly two-thirds of customers have used a company’s social media site to connect with customer service. New research in the INFORMS journal Information Systems Research finds businesses that use Twitter as a social care channel are seeing a 19% increase in customer satisfaction. The study, “The Voice of the Customer: Managing Customer Care on Twitter,” looks at data from Twitter service accounts for the four big telecommunications firms in the United States. The two that rise to the top among online customer care are AT&T and Verizon compared to Sprint and T-Mobile.

Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, sent a letter last week to the nation’s governors with an urgent request. The Trump administration wanted them to do everything in their power to eliminate hurdles for vaccine distribution sites to be fully operational by Nov. 1. The Aug. 27 letter, obtained by McClatchy, asked governors to fast-track permits and licenses for new distribution sites. “The normal time required to obtain these permits presents a significant barrier to the success of this urgent public health program,” Redfield wrote.

The CDC’s push to get vaccines out by November 1 is stirring up all types of reactions. On Twitter, one man telling Q13 News on Thursday that he hopes it’s true. A woman said to count her in for the vaccine while others called it a rush job with political motivations. There is no shortage of opinions but health experts say in the end it comes down to scientific data. “This is an unprecedented set of activities that we’ve seen developing vaccines that has never been developed,” Professor Julie Swann at North Carolina State University said.

As the final stage of vaccine trials are happening across the country, health officials are working on a plan for how to give it out once it’s approved. The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control confirms that a memo went out to all governors explaining how federal health officials are preparing for widespread distribution of the COVID 19 vaccine in the fall and distribution centers should be operational by November 1.