Woonsocket Radio News Room

House COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force Meets Tomorrow for Presentations on Vaccine Distribution

STATE HOUSE – The House of Representatives Task Force for COVID-19 Vaccine is scheduled to meet virtually tomorrow to discuss vaccine distribution efforts with representatives from the Department of Health, Care New England and Lifespan.

The meeting is to be held tomorrow, Tuesday, Dec. 15, at 3 p.m. via WebEx.

The meeting will be televised by Capitol Television, which can be seen on Cox Channels 15 and 61, in high definition on Cox Channel 1013, on Full Channel on Channel 15 and on Channel 34 by Verizon subscribers.  The meeting can be live streamed at http://www.rilegislature.gov/CapTV/Pages/default.aspx.

Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott, Director; Alysia Mihalakos, Chief of the Center for Emergency Preparedness and Response, and Tricia Washburn, Chief of the Office of Immunization, will make the presentation by the Department of Health. 

Lifespan will be represented by Christine M. Collins, Vice President and Chief Pharmacy Officer, and Jacqueline Parrillo, RN, Director, Employee and Occupational Health Services and Human Resources. Care New England will be represented by Dr. Raymond Powire, MD, Executive Chief of Medicine, and Robin Neale, MS, Vice President, Quality and Clinical Effectiveness.

The task force’s purpose is to ensure that Rhode Island’s distribution of the vaccine is done in a timely manner following the CDC guidelines and that front-line workers, the health-compromised and the elderly are given access first, and also to make certain the needs of the underserved populations are appropriately addressed. The task force will work closely with the Rhode Island Department of Health and learn about the state’s vaccine plan.

No public testimony will be accepted at the virtual meeting.

The New York trial of former President Donald Trump is set to resume today with the judge deciding if Trump has violated his gag order. Prosecutors want him fined three-thousand bucks. Trump supporters say it's unconstitutional that Trump is limited to what he can talk about, while everyone else is allowed to speak freely about the case.       Former President Trump says his criminal case boils down to a "legal expense" and is only meant to keep him off the campaign trail. After the trial adjourned Monday, Trump told reporters all of his cases are coming out of the White House to influence the election.       The Supreme Court will hear arguments in two big cases today. The first involves a man from El Salvador who was denied a visa to be with his wife, an American citizen, in the U.S. He eventually learned he was rejected because an official saw his tattoos and suspected he might have a criminal background. He doesn't, but the decision to keep him out has held. The other case involves whether the National Labor Relations Board can order employers to rehire workers they say were fired without just cause.       An Australian court is ordering Elon Musk's social media company X to block all users from seeing violent footage of a Sydney church stabbing. The video in question shows a 16-year-old suspect yelling in Arabic and referring to insults made against "the Prophet" before stabbing members of the clergy last week. X had blocked the video for users with Australian IP addresses but the court said that didn't go far enough.       The owner of the New England Patriots is pulling his donations to Columbia University as pro-Palestinian protests continue. Robert Kraft issued a statement through his organization, the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, saying he's "no longer confident that Columbia can protect its students and staff."       Women in the hospital are less likely to die if they're treated by female doctors. That's according to a new study that also found they were less likely to be readmitted to the hospital. The study, published Monday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, found that among women 65 and older, eight-point-15 percent treated by women died within 30 days, compared with eight-point-38 percent treated by males.        

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