Sam Whitehead
90.1FM WABE
Atlanta, GA, United States
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Past articles by Sam:
CDC Director Worries About Lagging Vaccination Rates In The South
The Biden administration wants 70% of all U.S. adults to have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose by July 4. It's a goal that could prove elusive, in part because of low vaccination rates in the south. In Georgia, just 42% of people have started the vaccination process, according to state data. That's of → Read More
Inside Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Federal Pause: What Holdup Means For Georgians
This week, federal public health officials recommended a pause in the use of Johnson & Johnson's Janssen COVID-19 vaccine. This after reports of rare, but serious, blood clots. The FDA and Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention met to review this handful of serious reactions and decided it was → Read More
Spa Shootings: Victims Identified, Investigation Continues, A Community Mourns
We're learning more each day about the shootings this week in metro Atlanta that left eight people dead, most of them women of Asian descent. Friday afternoon, we learned the identities of the last four women, all of them identified as Asian women by the Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office. They were killed at → Read More
Ga. Efforts To Ensure COVID-19 Vaccine Equity Could Be Hindered By Short Supply Of Doses
Vince Williams, the mayor of Union City, says he's been getting a lot of phone calls recently from constituents over the age of 65 looking for COVID-19 vaccines. “When I get back to my office, I'm going to have an additional 10 to 25 calls: ‘Where do I go Mayor Williams? What can I do?’” he said, standing outside the → Read More
Georgia Back In COVID 'Red Zone' As 'Perfect Storm' Approaches
The Trump administration says Georgia is back in the "red zone" for new COVID-19 cases. The pandemic's growing momentum in the state led the White House Coronavirus Task Force to put it back in its highest-threat category in its latest report dated Nov. 8. Just six weeks earlier, the White House removed Georgia from → Read More
Atlanta Now Requires Masks In Public Spaces In The City
Updated Thursday at 6:06 p.m. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms signed an executive order Wednesday mandating the use of face masks in public spaces, becoming one of the latest cities to test an order from Gov. Brian Kemp that bars local governments from setting their own public health rules. "We've given a lot of → Read More
Emory Researchers Think They Have A Drug To Fight The New Coronavirus
Chemistry and cooking are pretty similar, at least to Mike Natchus. He walks through a lab in Atlanta and stops at a fume hood, a ventilated enclosure that sucks up dangerous gases, where he picks up a small glass container. "A lot of what we do looks like you're working in a kitchen," Natchus, who works at the Emory → Read More
Street Medicine Brings Health Care To Atlanta's Homeless
It’s late afternoon, and a large van sits idling in the hot sun on a street corner in southwest Atlanta near where Interstate-20 crosses over Whitehall Street. Herman Ware sits surrounded by medical supplies at a wobbly table in the vehicle. He’s taking a break from the mid-September heat, as nurse Stephanie Dotson → Read More
As Local Bahamian Community Reels, Atlantans Step Up To Help Hurricane Victims
Melissa Bevans is sitting outside an office building in Peachtree Corners, when a call comes in on her smartphone. On the other end of the line is her mother, who’s hundreds of miles away in the Bahamas. “Mummy, mummy. I need you to get out of there,” Bevans said, a pleading edge to her voice. Just a few days have → Read More
Georgia's Abortion Law Has Doctors Thinking About Their Language
It’s early morning at Colleen Cherry’s obstetrics and gynecology practice in Atlanta. The office murmurs with activity as providers and staff prep for the day’s patients. Cherry walks down the hall from her office into a small room, complete with an exam table and ultrasound machine. “It’s down this way, right in → Read More
Lt. Governor Confident Georgia Could Administer Medicaid Work Requirements
Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan says he’s confident Georgia could manage the administration of a work requirement for Medicaid. It’s a big idea on the table as the state prepares waivers to tweak its Medicaid program. “With all the modern-day technology, I’m certain we can figure out a system that is simple to use and easy to → Read More
Rights For People With Disabilities: 20 Years After Olmstead Case, Progress Comes With Costs
By late morning, it’s getting hot in Lisa Archibald’s garage, even with the big door pulled open. She points a whirring box fan at her brother, John-David Mixon. He sits in a wheelchair and watches the occasional car pass by their home in Byron, Georgia. One of Mixon’s nurses, Pam Walton, tends to his feeding tube, → Read More
Could Georgia Consider Work Requirements For Medicaid?
Should people who receive health insurance coverage through Medicaid be required to work? It’s a question Georgia policy makers are likely to engage with as they prepare waivers to tweak the state’s Medicaid program. Georgia officials awarded consulting firm Deloitte a nearly $2 million contract this week to help → Read More
Inside The Possible Legal Challenges To Georgia's Abortion Law
A legal fight over Georgia’s restrictive anti-abortion law is coming. Groups were threatening to sue the state over the measure, which bans most abortions as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, even before Governor Brian Kemp signed it into law in early May. Now those organizations, like the ACLU of Georgia, are → Read More
A Look At Georgia's New 'Heartbeat Bill' And What Happens Next
Gov. Brian Kemp signed Georgia’s restrictive abortion bill into law in early May, but the fight over H.B. 481 or the “heartbeat bill” is far from over. Civil and reproductive rights groups, such as the ACLU of Georgia, have promised to sue over the law, which bans most abortions as early as six weeks into a → Read More
CDC Partners With Texas City To Release Report On E-Scooter Injuries
One-third of e-scooter riders who get injured are using the dockless devices for the first time. That's according to a report released this week from the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Austin Public Health Department. It looks at close to 200 injured e-scooter riders in the Texas → Read More
Public Health Officials Warn More Measles Cases Likely
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released its latest statistics on the current measles outbreak as public health officials warn the virus is likely to continue to spread. The agency has confirmed 704 cases in 22 states as April 26th -- that includes 6 reported by state public health officials in → Read More
Georgia Releases February SNAP Benefits Early
Georgians on food stamps should prepare to do some extra budgeting of their SNAP, or food stamp, benefits. The partial government shutdown is causing the state to release February’s benefits this week. The Georgia Division of Family and Children Services says next month's SNAP benefits have already been added to → Read More
5 Deaths Linked To Flu In Georgia This Season
Another death has been linked to influenza in Georgia. The state Department of Public Health says the virus has killed five people so far this season. The agency’s latest weekly influenza report, which covers Dec. 30 - Jan. 5, says the latest victim was an adult between the age of 50 and 64. Flu has been linked to → Read More
Atlanta United's Path To Success And The MLS Cup
This weekend Atlanta United will host the Portland Timbers in the Major League Soccer Cup at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta. It’s only the second year Atlanta United has been a team, and now they're on the cusp of becoming Major League Soccer champions. In their short existence, the club has also built a rabid fan → Read More