Scientists are still trying to figure out whether the U.S. is entering a fourth wave of the pandemic. The bad news is there are some states experiencing an alarming rise in COVID cases. But the good news is there are also a lot more vaccinated people that could hold down the numbers. Dr. George Rutherford is an epidemiologist & director of the Division of Prevention & Public Health at UC San Francisco's School of Medicine. We may have yet another mutant COVID strain. This one may be coming from India, which is in the midst of an explosion in COVID cases. Now that strain has officially put down roots here in California. It's been dubbed the "double mutant" strain in India with the first cases confirmed up in the Bay Area. Dr. Kartik Chandran is a virologist & microbiologist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. It's supposed to be a 3-week wait in between the first and second doses of Pfizer's COVID vaccine; for Moderna, it's 4-weeks. But Walgreens, which has given out tens of thousands of vaccine doses so far, has pretty much tossed out that timeline and done its own thing. Dr. Dima Qato is a pharmacist at USC's School of Pharmacy & senior fellow at the USC Schaeffer School. The pandemic, the death of George Floyd and hate crimes against Asians Americans: these are some of the topics of uncomfortable yet necessary conversations that parents are having across the country. But, according to a new, surprising study, despite some sad and horrific things happening in our nation, many parents appear to be rather optimistic about their children's future. KYW's Matt Leon spoke with Jennifer Ng'andu, Managing Director of Program, at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation​. The NHL's Vancouver Canucks have been sidelined by COVID-19 for over a week and counting, as a Brazilian strain of the virus has ripped through almost the entire team and coaching staff. And reports out of the team are of several players -- and we're talking about young men in peak physical shape --who have got really sick and struggled to recover. Dr. Prabhat Jha is an epidemiologist & health economist at the University of Toronto, where he's founding director of the Centre for Global Health Research​. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices