More than 10% of the U.S. population has received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, but injection rates are lower in black and brown communities, and many people express doubts about the shots made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. Vaccine hesitancy presents a barrier in the fight against coronavirus.

A recent poll by Pew Research Center found that "Black Americans continue to stand out as less inclined to get vaccinated than other racial and ethnic groups: 42% would do so, compared with 63% of Hispanic and 61% of White adults."

Our guest, Dr. Wrenetha Julion, professor and department chair at Rush University College of Nursing, discusses causes of vaccine hesitancy and how to encourage more people to take a high-effective vaccine against the virus.

At the start of 2020, the world first became aware of COVID-19. This show looks at what we have learned about the global pandemic since then.

In early February, Richard spoke face-to-face with epidemiologist Kylie Carlville of Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, during a visit to Melbourne, Australia. In the spring , we interviewed Samson Ellis of Bloomberg News about Taiwan's remarkable success in fighting the spread of the virus. In June, oncologist, bioethicist, and healthcare expert, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel explained global lessons learned from the crisis. He wrote a new book called “Which Country Has the World’s Best Healthcare?”

This episode also includes practical lessons about public healthcare from physician and CEO Doctor Vivian Lee. And we went in pursuit of wisdom and discovery with journalist and author Eric Weiner, author of the new book, “The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons From Dead Philosophers". We discuss what ancient philosophy can teach about living in a time hardship.