COVID-19

As the state opens up its borders and businesses, the demand for COVID-19 testing is going up.

While we have all gained some measure of expertise on COVID-19, a steady stream of new research and information about the disease continues to raise more questions. What are the different ways this disease can affect the body? Do we know more about the ways it is transmitted, or about immunity? We’ll find out how scientific and medical research informs decisions regarding what makes sense regarding quarantines and re-opening.

For many people who have come to Maine recently from other countries, the pandemic has created additional challenges to their already difficult time living and working here. We’ll find out how these communities are coping during the COVID-19 crisis. How are they getting information about health and safety guidelines? Have there been a disproportionate number of COVID-19 cases among these communities? Has the crisis impeded the legal processes for them to get settled here? We'll also talk about how the additional turmoil of the racial justice protests are affecting new Mainers.

Conspiracy theories can range from the absurd to the believable. Currently, there are plenty of conspiracy theories about COVID-19 – where it originated, if it’s related to 5G, and more. We’ll discuss why some conspiracy theories stick, what makes people believe certain ideas, and how they can polarize society.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills says that she has taken steps to curtail state expenditures through June in order to get through the remainder of the budget year. But the economic effects of the pandemic will also require plans to deal with hundreds of millions of dollars in lost state revenues in the year to come.

With the depletion of certain items on grocery store shelves and the disruption to the supply chain, there is one thing the coronavirus pandemic has highlighted, and that is the importance of locally grown food. In Maine and around the country, small farms in particular are seeing a surge of interest in what they have to offer, and membership sales in community supported agriculture are especially attractive right now.