BALTIMORE — Restaurants are the backbones of communities across the country. They bring us to the freshest bodies of water, different countries, and the most unique spaces without leaving the comfort of our neighborhoods. Three years after the start of the pandemic, restaurants are still fighting to stay alive.

A year ago, we visited Baltimore to check in on restaurants that never received their funds from the government's Restaurant Revitalization Fund, and now, a year later, we are checking in.

Every restaurant has something different their customers always come back for. Here in Baltimore, it's likely you'll find it to be seafood. However, those signature flavors disappear if a business can't stay afloat. The Local Oyster is one restaurant that worries about its future.

"The Local Oyster started in 2015. We have been shucking oysters and serving crab cakes for the last seven years," said Patrick Hudson, one of the owners. "We were not generating any revenue; we were simply incurring losses and debt throughout the entire pandemic."

The Local Oyster has already had to close one of its locations in Arlington, Virginia. The restaurant's last spot remains standing, but shakily.

"Thinking about business before COVID is sort of like thinking about college; it was just a haze. It's like I can't even really remember what it was like. It's just so different," Hudson said.

Hudson says they are one of the thousands of businesses who saw their approval for the restaurant revitalization fund revoked last year. Congress provided $28.6 billion in grants, but funding dried up and two-thirds of the restaurants that were approved for funding received nothing.

"What that does is it leaves the local oyster in a position where we have hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt going forward, and to be honest, I don't know how sustainable that is. I don't know if that's going to last," Hudson said.

It's been over a year since that bad news was delivered, but the ripple effects of the pandemic continue to affect them every minute, of every day.

"And it's kind of surreal and people will come up to me during service and say, 'Well, I'm really glad you survived the pandemic' and I just have to shake my head," Hudson said. "We're gonna be struggling with the impact of the pandemic for the next generation of restaurant owners."

Damye Hahn runs Faidley's Seafood just a few minutes down the road.

"It would be like equating you to having a year and a half worth of mortgage payments that you haven't been able to pay, and all of a sudden, you get a job. Well that you're gonna be able to pay your mortgage, but that year and a half of mortgage payments is still hanging out there," Hahn said. "We just felt like the hits just kept coming and once we thought everything was beginning to get better than this incredible inflation hit. And it has been difficult again."

They've been in business for more than 130 years. Yet, these last few have been unmatched.

"We've had to raise prices. We've had to cut items off the menu that we can't carry anymore because they are just too expensive," Hahn said. "Fishing, it's been terrible to try to get fish because the poor guys, all their boats are diesel, and the diesel is outrageous. Fish and seafood have gone up dramatically. Some of it two and three times what we paid in 2019."

These are the kinds of roadblocks that can change a restaurant's identity.

"We consider ourselves really ambassadors of the Chesapeake region, so we make sure that we gave local fish, local crab, local oysters, real local seafood," Hahn said.

It worries Hahn about the future of the industry.

"This industry is so important because we tell the story of the Chesapeake, but there's restaurants that tell stories of the farms and other industries," Hahn said.

The Oscars will reportedly require nominees and guests of the awards show to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

They must also provide two negative PRC tests, according to Variety and The New York Times.

However, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will not require vaccinations for performers or presenters. Instead, they will reportedly be subject to rigorous testing.

This year's Oscars will be held at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. It will take place on March 27.

The show will feature three female hosts, Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes, for the first time.

Nominations for the Oscars were held last week.

Jane Campion's gothic western "The Power of the Dog" leads all other films with 12 nominations.

The COVID-19 vaccine for kids under five is on hold again.

On Friday, the FDA said it was delaying an advisory committee meeting to review the vaccine for children six months and up.

New data from Pfizer indicates while the vaccine appears safe, it may not work well enough to meet FDA standards.

“What we see, particularly among two- to five-year-olds, the data is not so compelling in terms of it being effective," said Eyal Oren, who runs the public health program at San Diego State University. "Meaning two doses did not promote an effective or strong immuno-response in these kids."

He says FDA officials say they want to wait on a decision until there is data available about a third dose of the vaccine.

Some doctors hope a vaccine is approved soon because kids are still sick.

“The younger the child, they could have difficulty breathing as that mucus gets in the lungs," said Dr. Joe Perno, the vice president of medical affairs at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. "So breathing problems where they’re breathing fast, where it’s sucking in around their ribs, they’re panting, those types of things. Those are come see us in the emergency room right away."

He says it’s important to note how safe the vaccine has been in other age groups.

“There are over eight million kids in the U.S. alone that have received at least one dose of the vaccine over the age of five, and the safety profile is astronomical," said Perno.

The FDA hasn't said when it would review this topic again, but Pfizer said it would have data on the third dose available in April.

If you haven’t experienced it yourself, you probably know someone who lost their sense of taste or smell from COVID-19.

“This virus has receptors including the ACE-2 that it binds to. And the ACE-2 receptor is particularly found in the olfactory epithelium, which are the areas the cells in the nose, deep inside the nose where the sense of smell fibers descend down from the brain,” said Dr. Carol Yan, a Rhinologist at UC San Diego.

She has been working with patients who have a loss of taste and smell from COVID-19.

“We’ve known for many years that all viruses have the potential to cause smell loss, and it is, in particular with this virus, that we’ve seen a much higher incidence of smell and taste loss,” said Dr. Yan.

We haven’t known until recently that the loss of smell, at least in the case of COVID, might be tied to your genetics.

“We compared people who had COVID-19 who did have a loss of smell versus people who didn’t, and we found a very clear genetic association with that particular symptom,” said Janie Shelton, an epidemiologist with 23&Me.

In a recent study, the company claims it can identify the genetic trait linked to the loss of smell in COVID patients.

“When we looked across all the chromosomes in the genome, we saw one really particular region in the genome that appeared to be strongly associated with loss of smell and so that region of the genome governs the expression of enzymes in your nose that clear smells out of your nose,” Shelton said.

If you’re like me, you’re probably wondering which types of people have this trait. But Shelton says it’s not that simple.

“What we saw was that this was relevant across all the different race-ethnic groups that we had in our sample,” said Shelton.

So, anyone can have this genetic trait. They still don’t know what may cause long-term loss of smell in people.

“Those people, you know we don’t really know why they specifically haven’t recovered and whether or not there’s a genetic component to that an immuno component or something different,” said Dr. Yan.

But 23&Me is looking into that next.

“Of the people who reported COVID to us, we went back and asked them to fill out another web-based survey about whether or not they’ve had symptoms of long COVID,” said Shelton.

Hoping to uncover more answers for the people suffering from long-term symptoms.

HIGHGATE, Vt. — For Jason Gagne, maple syrup is more than a topping. It's a lifestyle.

"It's not just for pancakes anymore," he said.

Gange runs his family farm, Gange Maple, and he's right. The use of maple has expanded.

"People use it in baking, cooking, they love it in their drinks at night," he said. "You can put it anywhere."

For Gagne and thousands of other maple producers in the Northeast, that expansion happened rapidly during the pandemic.

"COVID found that more people were eating maple syrup at home," Gagne said. "When the restaurants all closed, the consumption of maple syrup went up."

Gagne says demand went up about 25% — and it's up everywhere.

The Québec Maple Syrup Producers (QMSP) recently released around 50 million pounds of maple syrup from its strategic reserve in November to try and keep up with demand.

"Demand for maple syrup has been booming in 2020 and 2021," the QMSP said in a statement. "Businesses, noting the average-only harvest in Canada and the United States, responded by increasing their orders, necessitating QMSP's withdrawals from the Reserve."

Experts in the American maple industry say the country won't run out of syrup any time soon.

"There's still plenty of maple syrup to go around, there's not really a shortage of maple syrup," Gagne said.

Experts say tapping into a strategic reserve is pretty normal for agriculture economies.

"Typically, these reserves are in place in order to balance supply and demand and pricing," said Jack Buffington, who runs the supply chain program at the University of Denver. "A lot of times in agriculture and farming, it relates to pricing,"

Buffington says specific food shortages likely aren't as serious as they may seem, unlike the shortages affecting some other commodities.

"There's some commodities where this really matters: Oil semiconductors, aluminum, copper. Commodities that are critical," Buffington said. "This is really the lifeblood of how our supplies chains work."

Maple may not move the needle on a national level, but it's the heartbeat of the economy for thousands of producers in the Northeast and their families.

"The family's been making maple syrup pretty much as long as anybody can remember, from my grandfather and going back to his parents," Gange said. "We've grown from when we started here from maybe 1,500 trees that we tap, and now we have over 22,000 here."

Gange knows farmers don't farm for the money. They do it because they love what they do.

CENTENNIAL, Colo. — Things are already getting festive in the Streets at SouthGlenn mall in Colorado.

They are kicking off the holiday season with a Christmas parade. And everyone is waiting for the guest of honor. Santa.

“It’s exciting, it’s thrilling, it’s magical. The children are the core of the magic of Christmas,” said Susen Mesco, with American Events and Promotions.

Susen Mesco is donning her Mrs. Claus outfit as she helps Santa at the holiday parade.

She also runs a Santa school and knows that it might be harder to book Santa for your holiday party this year.

“Usually, we do about 60 Santas live. They start in February with their classes,” said Mesco, “In the past couple years, because of travel situations and people not wanting to be in a conference situation, what we’ve found is about the half enrollment of the Claus Clan,”

The labor shortage that’s been impacting the whole country seems to have made its way to the North Pole as well.

“Seasonal labor is traditionally in the same target market where there’s been difficulty hiring,” said Jack Buffington.

He runs the supply chain program at the University of Denver and says it’s not shocking the labor issue is impacting Saint Nick.

“You think about it, it’s like a four-hour seasonal shift, making $20, $30 an hour. I mean, gosh, especially given the fact that most of the people who fit in this category are not supposed to be in public, big crowds, or around unvaccinated people,” said Buffington.

Mesco said a shortage of Santa’s is only part of the problem.

“This year, more people want to have a party,” she said

Demand is up, so if you’re trying to have a party on the weekend in December, you might have an issue finding a Santa. But of course, Mrs. Claus has a solution.

“You can have just as much fun on a Tuesday night. Smores and cookies taste just as good on a Tuesday night as they do on a Saturday. So if people are flexible, Santa’s are going to be able to make it to every one of those parties,” said Mesco.

Just like everything else we’ve been through the last year and a half, a little flexibility goes a long way.

And maybe it shouldn’t be so shocking that there’s a shortage of Santas this year.

“I don’t know why everyone is so surprised. There’s only one Santa Claus,” said one of Santa's elves.

And there’s one night. He should definitely be available.

“Boys and girls, don’t forget that if you’ve been good, no matter what happens, Santa will be there on Christmas Eve,” said Mesco.

Exhaustion, sadness, stress and anger. That is how one Arizona nurse describes working inside one of the busiest COVID-19 units in the state right now.

Charge Nurse Debra, who requested we not use her last name or the name of the hospital in which she works, said she wanted to share "her truth" with a community that seemed divided over wearing masks and social distancing.

"I never ever want to get this virus, and I don't wish this on anybody," said Debra.

After almost 20 years of working in an intensive care unit, nurses like Debra are used to seeing pain and suffering, but Debra said what she is seeing with COVID-19 is on another level.

"It's intense, very stressful, very, very challenging. I never would have guessed that this would have happened in my career," said Debra.

In March, Debra and her team were informed their unit would be turning into a COVID-19 unit.

"At that time, I think we had about eight patients. Now we're full, we're overflowing into other units. It's difficult. It's challenging," said Debra.

Debra began posting about what it was like inside her hospital. In one social media post, she said:

"On the very first night there, we only had about 8 patients and by looking at how sick each of them were, I got teary/emotional and thought to myself, I can’t do this!!!! The amount of tubes, machines and continuous IV meds attached to these patients was barbaric!!!

As each bed opened, or became available due to a patient’s untimely demise, I have witnessed an amazing team of healthcare providers work relentlessly for each patient. But in a lot of cases, it was never enough. I have watched us try every concoction of ventilator settings and continuous IV infusions to help a patient let the ventilator do its work for them, but in many cases, it still didn’t work.

We try everything we can if the patient tolerates it. Five team members will go into rooms and sort out a vast array of tubes, IV lines, cables, equipment and wires, so we can flip a patient onto their stomach. This will sometimes help patients through the extremely severe inflammatory process that COVID causes.

Most people are not in perfect shape – we have to position pillows and foam pieces underneath their body just right to avoid pressure sores, to avoid their belly from pushing against the mattress which can also prevent the ventilator from working adequately and to prevent the lines, tubes and cables from becoming detached. This process can take an hour depending on the situation."

Debra also admitted she, along with experienced team members, had moments where they broke down and cried during their shifts.

"We all understand and are just there to help each other through it," said Debra.

Their supervisors often asked them if they needed a break or some time off, but Debra said for her, that was not an option. She knew her team members and her patients needed her.

For Debra, it is hard to describe the suffering she witnessed.

"Some patients, they cannot breathe. They're struggling to get comfortable. I don't know if you've ever felt you cannot get your breath, you cannot catch that breath, the anxiety that goes with it," said Debra.

There is also a fine line when giving patients medication to calm down. There is a risk the medication could slow down or stop a patient’s breathing.

Debra says she is sharing her experience with the community because she knows that numbers, charts and graphs shown by the state's health officials may be difficult for people to understand. Numbers can also be interpreted differently, based on how you looked at them. So, her clear message to people: what is happening inside our hospitals’ COVID-units today is very real.

"The last night that I worked, we had one COVID bed available. There are other intensive care unit beds, but people are still having car accidents, heart attacks, strokes, things like that. We need to keep those open for them," said Debra.

In her social media post, Debra stated medical professionals were doing everything they possibly could to save patients’ lives, but they desperately needed more medical professionals. She also further described how they must flip patients several times during a shift and how complicated that process can be:

"Placing a patient on their stomach is called proning. There are some shifts I work where we may flip patients 16 times (total flips for all patients). If anything emergent happens, we have to flip them back. This can happen to multiple patients at once and we only have so many staff members. A respiratory therapist has to be in the rooms when we flip as well. If they are in another room or we don’t have enough hands on deck to help, the patient in need just waits while their body suffers the lack of oxygen. Kidneys are being damaged and many patients have to go on dialysis.

Some may be from the lack of oxygen, some are from the problems caused in the blood by COVID and others because of the septic shock and lack of adequate vital signs to ensure the kidneys actually receive enough blood flow. If a patient can not tolerate regular dialysis due to how badly their body is in shock, they are placed on a continuous type of dialysis. This requires one nurse to provide dedicated care to that patient. This nurse cannot take care of other patients.

(Side note, we do not have enough nurses so every patient can have one for themselves) When everything we do is no longer enough, some patients may qualify for a treatment called ECMO. Very large tubes are placed into the patient. Blood flows out of the patient through this tube, goes through a machine that works like lungs should and puts oxygen into the blood, then the blood is returned to the body so it can deliver oxygen to the body."

Nurses like Debra are also doing what they can to comfort patients in the last moments of their lives. The hospitals have chaplains, but sometimes it is too late by the time the chaplain arrives. Debra says some hospitals are allowing family members in to say their last goodbyes, but often, a nurse is the only one holding the patient's hand as they pass away.

"We never let them pass alone. One of us is always in the room when they do pass away, but I've definitely prayed over patients," said Debra.

In her letter to the community, Debra went on to say:

"As our hospital has been told to go into emergency mode, we are preparing for things to get worse. We are barely afloat now. My words here cannot do the gravity of the situation enough justice but I hope they leave you considering a few things. Imagine not being able to breathe, struggling for air and no help comes. Imagine the same for your parents, siblings, children and no help comes.

People are tired of being advised to stay home, people disagree with what the numbers say, people don’t grasp exactly what it takes to make and staff an ICU room. People don’t understand the supplies and equipment needed and just how far that stuff goes.

What can you do? Be a little more cautious and considerate. Be more mindful of how you interact and whether things can wait a bit longer. Be safe! Be smart! It is so much easier than being a patient right now."

Fewer women are scheduling mammograms due to COVID-19 fears, according to a local doctor.

At TriStar Summit Medical Center, Dr. Rhonda Halcomb with Centennial Women’s group, said they’re being careful.

“From the time that you check in here, patients are pre-screened and screened, we provide masks and hand sanitizer here in the building, and here in the office," said Halcomb.

Even though we’re in the middle of a pandemic, she said routine mammograms are still important.

“Breast cancer, in general, is the number one cancer in women.”

She’s sad that fewer people are showing up, or postponing their routine checks.

“It breaks my heart in general that people are scared to take care of themselves,” Dr. Halcomb said.

First hand, she has seen how mammograms can save lives.

“Breast cancer to me has affected several of my family members. I had early breast cancer detected by screening.”

Dr. Halcomb said death rates have decreased since the 1970s due to more people getting diagnosed with breast cancer - early.

“Mammograms detect breast cancer before someone can feel a breast cancer before the doctor can feel the breast cancer in the breast,” Dr. Halcomb said, “Mammograms are just as important as they’ve ever been.”

Actress Kelly Preston just died from breast cancer at 57-years-old. She leaves behind her husband, John Travolta. They were married for 28 years.

WTVF's Alexandra Koehn was first to report.

HOUSTON (AP) — A federal judge has extended the deadline for the release of migrant children from detention, as advocates for detained families feared the government would create what they called a new form of family separation.

U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles on Thursday granted a request for a 10-day extension to release children held in family detention centers longer than 20 days.

In her ruling last month setting the Friday deadline, Gee said the family detention centers "are 'on fire' and there is no more time for half measures."

According to NBC News, Gee stated back in June that COVID-19 had made detention centers unsafe.

Gee's recent ruling did not extend to parents detained with their children, the Associated Press reported.

Recent Vanderbilt University graduates who made a germ-resistant phone case after contracting COVID-19 have now sold 1,000 cases. They are donating as many cases to health care workers.

"Now that they have them in their hands, just the positive response we have been getting is just something that we weren't fully expecting," said Nick O'Brien.

RELATED: College seniors create germ-resistant copper phone case after recovering from COVID-19

After contracting the novel coronavirus, Nick O'Brien, Isaac Lichter, and Andrew Medland founded Aeris and created their first product, a copper-coated phone case.

"Copper is very effective at continuously killing germs, a whole variety of microbes including the novel coronavirus," said Isaac Lichter.

In a matter of months, the entrepreneurs who graduated from Vanderbilt, moved to San Diego and are now producing their product on an industrial scale. They are able to fill orders as soon as they come in and make good on their promise to donate a case to a healthcare worker for each one purchased.

On Friday, Aeris donated phone cases to Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

"I am very excited to see what these 250 healthcare workers have to say," said Lichter.

Next, the company plans to donate cases to hospitals in their hometowns, including New York City and San Diego.

Aeris is working on new designs that incorporate copper.

"We see the future as copper-covered," said Lichter. "We knew we didn't want to be a phone case company. We see the real value in this."

WTVF's Hannah McDonald first reported this story.

WASHINGTON D.C. — Drugmaker Merck has asked U.S. regulators to authorize its promising antiviral pill against COVID-19, setting the stage for a decision within weeks.

If cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, it would be the first pill shown to treat COVID-19, adding a new, easy-to-use weapon to the world's arsenal against the pandemic.

The FDA will scrutinize company data on the drug’s safety and effectiveness before rendering a decision. All COVID-19 drugs now authorized by the FDA require an IV or injection.

CNN —

Related video: Some winter-related symptoms that might be confused with COVID-19.

Now that coronavirus vaccines are starting to roll out in the U.S. and abroad, many people may be dreaming of the day when they can travel, shop and go to the movies again. But in order to do those activities, you may eventually need something in addition to the vaccine: a vaccine passport application.

Several companies and technology groups have begun developing smartphone apps or systems for individuals to upload details of their COVID-19 tests and vaccinations, creating digital credentials that could be shown in order to enter concert venues, stadiums, movie theaters, offices or even countries.

The Common Trust Network, an initiative by Geneva-based nonprofit The Commons Project and the World Economic Forum, has partnered with several airlines including Cathay Pacific, JetBlue, Lufthansa, Swiss Airlines, United Airlines and Virgin Atlantic, as well as hundreds of health systems across the United States and the government of Aruba.

The CommonPass app created by the group allows users to upload medical data such as a COVID-19 test result or, eventually, a proof of vaccination by a hospital or medical professional, generating a health certificate or pass in the form of a QR code that can be shown to authorities without revealing sensitive information. For travel, the app lists health pass requirements at the points of departure and arrival based on your itinerary.

"You can be tested every time you cross a border. You cannot be vaccinated every time you cross a border," Thomas Crampton, chief marketing and communications officer for The Commons Project, told CNN Business. He stressed the need for a simple and easily transferable set of credentials, or a "digital yellow card," referring to the paper document generally issued as proof of vaccination.

Large tech firms are also getting in on the act. IBM developed its own app, called Digital Health Pass, which allows companies and venues to customize indicators they would require for entry including coronavirus tests, temperature checks and vaccination records. Credentials corresponding to those indicators are then stored in a mobile wallet.

In an effort to address one challenge around returning to normalcy after vaccines are distributed widely, developers may now have to confront other challenges, ranging from privacy issues to representing the varied effectiveness of different vaccines. But the most pressing challenge may simply be avoiding the disjointed implementation and mixed success of tech's previous attempt to address the public health crisis: contact tracing apps.

Early on in the pandemic, Apple and Google set aside their smartphone rivalry to jointly develop a Bluetooth-based system to notify users if they'd been exposed to someone with COVID-19. Many countries and state governments around the world also developed and used their own apps.

"I think where exposure notification ran into some challenges was more of the piecemeal implementation choices, lack of federal leadership ... where each state had to go it alone and so each state had to figure it out independently," said Jenny Wanger, who leads the exposure notification initiatives for Linux Foundation Public Health, a tech-focused organization helping public health authorities around the world combat COVID-19.

To encourage better coordination this time, The Linux Foundation has partnered with the COVID-19 Credentials Initiative, a collective of more than 300 people representing dozens of organizations across five continents and is also working with IBM and CommonPass to help develop a set of universal standards for vaccine credential apps.

"If we're successful, you should be able to say: I've got a vaccine certificate on my phone that I got when I was vaccinated in one country, with a whole set of its own kind of health management practices... that I use to get on a plane to an entirely different country and then I presented in that new country a vaccination credential so I could go to that concert that was happening indoors for which attendance was limited to those who have demonstrated that they've had the vaccine," said Brian Behlendorf, executive director of Linux Foundation.

"It should be interoperable in the same way that email is interoperable, the same way that the web is interoperable," he said. "Right now, we're in a situation where there's some moving parts that get us closer to that, but I think there's a sincere commitment from everybody in the industry."

Part of ensuring wide usage for vaccine passports is accounting for the large subset of the global population that still doesn't use or have access to smartphones. A few companies within the COVID-19 Credentials Initiative are also developing a smart card that strikes a middle ground between the traditional paper vaccine certificates and an online version that's easier to store and reproduce.

"For us it's [about] how that digital credential can be stored, can be presented, not only through smartphones but also in other ways for those people who don't have access to stable internet and also who don't own smartphones," said Lucy Yang, co-lead of the COVID-19 Credentials Initiative. "We're looking into it, and there are companies who are doing really promising work.

Once they build a vaccine passport, companies will need to make sure people are comfortable using it. That means confronting concerns about the handling of private medical information.

CommonPass, IBM and the Linux Foundation have all stressed privacy as central to their initiatives. IBM says it allows users to control and consent to the use of their health data and allows them to choose the level of detail they want to provide to authorities.

"Trust and transparency remain paramount when developing a platform like a digital health passport, or any solution that handles sensitive personal information," the company said in a blog post. "Putting privacy first is an important priority for managing and analyzing data in response to these complex times."

With vaccines manufactured by multiple companies across several countries in varying stages of development, there are a lot of variables that passport makers will need to account for.

"A point of entry — whether that's a border, whether that's a venue — is going to want to know, did you get the Pfizer vaccine, did you get the Russian vaccine, did you get the Chinese vaccine, so they can make a decision accordingly," said Crampton. The variance can be wide: the vaccine developed by Chinese state-owned pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm, for example, has an efficacy of 86% against COVID-19, while the vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna each have an efficacy of around 95%.

It's also unclear how effective the vaccines are in stopping the transmission of the virus, says Dr. Julie Parsonnet, an infectious disease specialist at Stanford University. So while a vaccine passport app will show that you've received the shot, it may not be a guarantee that you safely attend an event or get on a flight.

"We still don't know if vaccinated people can transmit infection or not," she told CNN Business. "Until that is clarified, we won't know whether 'passports' will be effective."

Still, Behlendorf anticipates that the rollout and adoption of vaccine passports will happen rather quickly once everything falls into place and expects a variety of apps that can work with each other to be "widely available" within the first half of 2021.

"Rest assured, the nerds are on it," he said.

CINCINNATI —

It's increasingly clear that giving the coronavirus vaccine to hundreds and one day thousands of people throughout Greater Cincinnati will require an 'all hands on deck' approach. Many of those hands will belong to volunteers who make up what's known as the Tri-State Medical Reserve Corps.

"There’s something here locally called the Medical Reserve Corps, or MRC, and individuals can volunteer to help with any kind of emergency locally, including nurses and doctors," Hamilton County public health Commissioner Greg Kesterman said.

The Cincinnati-Hamilton County Medical Reserve Corps may not have the highest profile, but trying to protect people from COVID-19 could change that.

"We’re really just building up a whole new branch," Kesterman said.

Kesterman compares the effort to enlist as many people as possible who are qualified to administer COVID-19 vaccines to the effort to add more contact tracers.

"We now have over 100 contact tracers," he said. "And they’re going to continue to do that great work while we simultaneously start to build an army of nurses that can vaccinate the population as we get vaccine."

That's where the Medical Reserve Corps comes into play.

There are 11 volunteer units in our region. The Cincinnati-Hamilton County unit has more than 600 members. The county health department's website features a video that encourages volunteer-minded people to sign up.

"We are volunteers who promote disease prevention and healthy living in your community," said an unidentified medical professional.

"We're the volunteers of the Medical Reserve Corps," said a second unidentified medical professional.

Kesterman hopes the ranks of the local MRC swell to help make the vaccination process operate as efficiently as possible.

The Tri-State Medical Reserve Corps has room for medical professionals and people without any medical training. When it comes to vaccinating large groups of people, there will be a variety of roles a variety of volunteers will need to play.

Anyone interested in joining the Medical Reserve Corps needs to be 18 or older. Click here to find out more.

CHICAGO — Public health officials have been debating whether it may be more effective to get more people their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and delaying the second round of shots that are needed for the highest immunity.

Last month, social media was flooded with images of frontline health care workers proudly rolling up their sleeves to get their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

But a slow rollout, a surge in cases, and the emergence a of a new, more contagious strain of the coronavirus have increased the urgency of the vaccination campaign.

“I think there is an urgency to getting people vaccinated in the best way possible quickly,” said Dr. Benjamin Singer, an assistant professor pulmonary and critical care at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine

In the UK, public health officials say prioritizing first doses will delay the interval of the second dose up to 12 weeks.

Pfizer, which is set to deliver 200 million doses of its vaccine to the U.S. by August of 2021, says it has tested their vaccine’s efficacy only when the two doses were administered 21 days apart. Moderna’s two-shot vaccine must be administered 28 days apart.

“Ninety, 95 percent efficacy, I mean, that's an amazing number, but the only way that we know with certainty to get to that level is with that two doses, three to four-week schedule,” said Singer.

Delays in administering the vaccine are already being reported across the U.S. There are now looming questions about what to do if a second dose has to be postponed.

“It could seem premature to begin discussing some of these contingency plans,” said Singer. “But I think it's an appropriate time to at least begin having the discussions.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as of Monday morning, of the 15.4 million doses distributed, only 4.6 million people got their first dose.

“Right now, our problem isn't so much having the right number of doses, it's getting those doses into the arms of people,” said Singer.

In recent days, some health experts have suggested delaying the second dose could actually be a strategy to inoculate more people. In a Washington Post op-ed this weekend, Drs. Robert Wachter and Ashish Jha write: “Giving 100 million people — particularly those at high risk — a single shot that is 80 to 90 percent effective will save far more lives than giving 50 million people two shots that are 95 percent effective.”

“There's also some discussion about whether you could stay on the two-shot schedule but give a half dose inject you know half the volume and achieve somewhat of a similar response.”

But late Monday, in a strongly-worded statement, the FDA dismissed the idea of altering dosages and the timeline saying, “…making such changes that are not supported by adequate scientific evidence may ultimately be counterproductive to public health.”

The first doses of the vaccines in the U.S. were administered in mid-December, which means many are due for their booster shot this week.

BIDDEFORD, Maine — Students are returning to campuses as colleges reopen their doors. About one in four U.S. schools require those students to get vaccinated for COVID-19, following guidelines from the American College Health Association.

"American College Health Association believes that the best protection, the best way to bring our faculty, staff and students back safely, is to have a fully vaccinated campus," said Dr. Sarah Van Orman.

She helped create the COVID-19 protocols in use around the country.

"I think for most of us, it's about balancing a return to normal, and how do we do those safely? What mitigation systems do we need to have in place?" said Van Orman.

Vaccine mandates are working at the University of New England (UNE). The picturesque campus is home to nearly 4,000 students and 1,100 staff members.

For the university's president, James Herbert, it’s several thousand people he’s responsible for keeping safe from COVID-19.

“It’s been quite the roller coaster the past 18 months, a lot of ups and downs. But we’ve actually weathered the pandemic quite well overall,” said Herbert

He’s hoping the roller coaster ride, at least on campus, may be slowing down.

“Now, we’ve gotten to the point where we’re over 98% of our community is vaccinated and with just a handful of exemptions,” said Herbert.

It’s not just UNE. About 94% of students living on campus in the University of Maine system are vaccinated. Multiple other colleges in Maine are reporting near 100% vaccination rates as well.

The number is substantially higher than the overall rate for 18 to 24-year-olds in the U.S. Only 43.5% have received the vaccine.

Herbert says vaccine requirements are a driving force. A total of 34 of Maine’s 37 universities require students to get the shot.

“The majority of the students responded very well. They understood why we needed to have the vaccine,” said Herbert.

For medical school students Julia Marcus and Molly Cherny, it made the decision to come to school that much easier.

“I thought it was awesome that UNECOM or UNE, in general, was mandating vaccines just for the safety of all the students and all the faculty,” said Marcus

“I’m sure there was an exemption or two but for the most part, we never even questioned it in the past to have a hepatitis or a menegitis or measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, so it kind of was like I said, just another box for me to check off,” said Cherney.

But while schools with mandates have generally reported high vaccination rates, it's a mixed bag for the 3,000-plus schools that do not have a mandate in place. Many do not publicly report their vaccination rates.

"When we think about the vaccine rates at an institution, we have to understand where does that institution sit. What are the overall vaccine rates in the community," said Van Orman.

The University of Alabama system, with no vaccine requirement, is reporting a vaccination rate of around 58%.

But the University of Wisconsin, which also decided against a mandate, has vaccinated more than 90% of students.

"I think it's a good example of what you see when you have that strong vaccine infrastructure, and a community acceptance and awareness of the vaccine, versus a state where we have a longer way to go," said Van Orman.

Herbert has faced doubters on his campus. He says his team has responded with compassion.

“What we tried to do is meet people where they were at rather than hit them over the head with a bunch of facts and figures to listen to what their concerns were and to try and meet them where they were at,” said Herbert. “This is, right now, one of the safest places on planet earth that you could be in is our campus when we have almost 99% of the community vaccinated.”

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. —

A teenager from North Carolina is showing progress after fighting COVID-19 for nearly 10 days, his family said.

Kaden Panico, 17, of Winston-Salem, was admitted to the ICU at Brenner Children's Hospital Wednesday. He was dehydrated and there was damage to his heart and kidneys upon his admission to the hospital.

Thursday marked his eighth day of fighting the virus.

Kaden Panico's mother, Lana Panico, said Thursday he was able to "finally speak a full sentence," after his body became weak and tired days prior.

Kaden was diagnosed with multi-system inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C). According to the CDC, MIS-C is a condition where different body parts can become inflamed, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes or gastrointestinal organs. Many children with MIS-C had the virus that causes COVID-19 or had been around someone with COVID-19.

"A lot of his organs are inflamed and working so very hard," Lana Panico said. "We are working hard to find the right combination of (medications) to help stabilize his heart so he can breathe at a safe pace again."

Lana Panico said she is worried about the lasting impacts on Kaden's heart.

"No one really knows too much right now," said Lana Panico.

Related video below: COVID-19 complications take Iowan teen from healthy to hospitalized

Kaden Panico's grandmother, Gerotha Burney, said the family wants to make sure that other teenagers know "this virus is real."

"So many of the teenagers think it can't happen to them," said Burney. "They just think they're not old enough for it. A teenager can get it just as easy as adults."

Kaden Panico is on the swim team and soccer team at Atkins High School. His future in sports is uncertain, his mother said.

"I dread the news that sports are finished for a while," Lana Panico said. "The likelihood of him playing is slim."

Burney said this is bothersome because "the family has no idea how he got it."

"The boy has worn a mask everywhere he went. He is not one to go out often. Even under these conditions, he still got it," Burney said.

Burney added that he goes to swim practice in the morning and goes to soccer practice in the afternoon.

"He practiced Monday and Tuesday and he came down with it on Thursday," Burney said. "One would think his body is strong enough to fight these germs off because of his working out all of the time. Obviously, it's not."

Burney added a plea to others in the community, especially children and teenagers, to take the virus seriously.

"Please, please be careful. Age and your good health mean nothing when COVID-19 strikes," Burney said. "Say a prayer for his recovery."

MOUNT HEALTHY, Ohio —

As is the case in many Greater Cincinnati school districts, COVID-19 is causing headaches for students and teachers in the Mount Healthy City School District.

"I feel like right now everybody's just trying to make the best decision, and there's really no good decision to make," Samantha Pryor said. "It's lose-lose, no matter what you're doing."

Pryor's niece is a Mt. Healthy sixth grader. While working at the Dairy Bar Friday on Hamilton Avenue, Pryor talked about a plan Mt. Healthy school leaders announced - to send students home in three weeks so they can learn remotely while cleaning crews sanitize school buildings.

"They're just trying to do what's best," Pryor said.

WLWT investigator Todd Dykes asked Mt. Healthy school administrator Dr. Apollos Harris why what the district is calling an eight-day "Remote Learning Event" isn't starting now.

"Are we at a crucial point right now that we have to shut down? No," Harris said. "But looking at our trend data and seeing how we're moving, we understand, we're kind of hit that tipping point."

Harris said says even though masks are required in the district, quarantine rates are rising. Having students learn from home for a stretch in mid-October, a stretch that includes two previously scheduled off-days, should help Mt. Healthy schools avoid shutting down completely, which Harris said would be a serious setback for kids.

"We have made great strides since the beginning of the school year, and we don't want to lose them," he said. "And because of that, we're preparing them, like 'Hey, it's eight days.' And some people might say, 'It’s 8 days!' No, those 8 days we still want you fully engaged."

Harris said Mt. Healthy students use their Chromebooks every day, so forgetting passwords while at home won't be acceptable.

"When a student says, 'I didn't have anything today,' parents can be, like, 'That's not true,'" Harris said.

When mount healthy students go back to class after the remote learning event, they will be just three weeks away from Thanksgiving break. After that comes Christmas, indicating district leaders think trying to time when kids are away from school will help maximize the number of hours they can spend learning in person.

MEMPHIS — Dealing with COVID-19 has been a sticky situation for schools.

But at the Bornblum Jewish Community School in Memphis, they’re turning to new technology to keep air quality clean.

“We have a new filter system being installed in the school right now,” said Daniel Weiss, the head of school at Bornblum.

Proper ventilation and air quality are part of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommendations for keeping schools open and children safe.

“More or less it works like a human nose,” said Clemens Sparowitz, chief operating officer of Dexwet, which makes the air filters that are being installed at the school.

They are coated with a sticky substance that is designed to catch particles in the air.

“The filters get moistured with liquid and so any particle that collides with the filter is permanently bonded in there,” said Sparowitz.

Air quality is a concern for small schools like Bornblum as well as large schools like the ones in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), where more than 600,000 students learn every day.

“We upgraded to MERV 13. That’s 110 thousand filters. MERV 13s are made out of the same raw material that N-95 and hospital gowns are made out of,” said Robert Laughton, the director of maintenance and operations for LAUSD.

“We spent last summer, close to $3 million, re-wiring every air conditioner in the district, just to run 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” he added.

The CDC recommends that air systems start running at least two hours before someone needs to be in the room. All of the improvements, big and small, can be expensive.

The COVID-19 relief bill, passed in March, included over $120 billion in funds for schools, some of which is specifically earmarked for ventilation improvements.

“The biggest concern always was, how's the air inside the building?” said Weiss.

For Weiss, focusing on air quality and experimenting with new technologies is helping him keep his students exactly where they need to be.

“There’s nothing better than having a full classroom on campus, learning with their teacher, being able to experience all of the things the teacher wants them to do. You can’t do that in the same way when you’re learning virtually. We needed to be on campus," said Weiss.

CINCINNATI —

A Silverton dad said he spent hours on Wednesday in search of a COVID-19 test for a child, but he said it was no easy task.

He said many places were busy, with lines, and some had no appointments.

Derek Drifmeyer said he offered to help a friend whose 11-year-old daughter was feeling pretty lousy.

Little did he know, it would turn into an hours-long trip for a test.

"I felt bad for her. We're driving all over town trying to find a place to get a test and she's sick, just wants to be at home resting," Drifmeyer said.

He said finding a COVID-19 test for his friend's daughter took more than four hours, starting at about 10 a.m.

"Went to Walgreens to buy a test. Found out that they were sold out of the take-home tests. Tried to schedule a test with CVS. Every location I tried, it was booked up. Same with Walgreens," Drifmeyer said.

After trying an urgent care, where people were waiting in line for a test, Drifmeyer said they were eventually able to get a test at her primary care provider in a garage.

The Ohio Department of Health said it is expanding testing as demand soars.

"We also continue to see rising numbers of Ohioans tested for COVID-19 and increasing positivity rates now hovering at a seven-day average 13.3 percent. Testing is an important strategy to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19. If you're concerned that you might have COVID there are many options for testing," Ohio Chief Medical Officer Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff said. "In addition to being able to get a test at many pharmacies and community providers, we've also partnered with many of our libraries and local health departments, where you can pick up a free, rapid BinaxNOW test, which can be administered from the comfort of your home with the help of a telehealth provider."

Vanderhoff said demand for testing is high, so he urged everyone to make sure a test is available by searching a map on the Ohio Coronavirus website to find a provider.

At the same time, officials warn that emergency rooms are not for routine testing.

"We need to be able to provide our community with the very best, efficient and quick care for acute conditions," Premier Health System Chief Medical Officer Dr. Marc Belcastro said.

Drifmeyer said the entire COVID-19 situation is frustrating.

He said people should wear masks, get vaccinated if they can and keep trying for a test.

"We were doing well with COVID the numbers were down and people got pretty lax and now they're shooting back up," Drifmeyer said.

He also said he recovered from a breakthrough case himself about a month or so ago.

Walgreens did not respond to our request for comment.

CVS Health told us testing has been in high demand, but stores have been able to keep up with it in most locations.

A spokesman told us people can purchase at-home COVID-19 tests over the counter, limited to six per person, or they can be purchased online and delivered to their door in 24 to 48 hours.

CVS Health provided this statement to WLWT:

"Daily COVID-19 testing volume is currently running ahead of average daily volume year-to-date, and significantly ahead of average daily volume in the second quarter. COVID-19 home test kits are the top-selling item in our stores.

We continue to be able to meet the demand for COVID-19 testing in most locations, even with increasing numbers of patients seeking out tests at one of our nearly 5,000 CVS Pharmacy locations across the country offering testing with same day and future day appointments in most geographies. Patients are encouraged to schedule an appointment on CVS.com or the CVS Pharmacy app, where they have the option to seek either a rapid COVID-19 test, with results available within hours, or a COVID-19 test at the pharmacy drive-thru windows. The self-swab collected at the CVS Pharmacy drive-thru window is processed by an independent, third-party lab and those results are generally available within 1-2 days."

CVS Health said it has also established a new partnership to expand the availability of at-home COVID-19 testing kits in 7,000 of its stores as of last week.

According to CVS Health, it is partnering with Quidel Corporation to make its "non-prescription QuickVue® At-Home OTC COVID-19 Test" available at thousands of locations across the United States and online.

CVS said the packages contain two self-administered rapid antigen tests.

Within hours of taking office, President Joe Biden issued more than a dozen executive orders, memos and proclamations.

Executive action by the president is one of the fastest and most effective way for the federal government to take action.

“The administration wants to be seen as taking swift action on many of the crises that the country currently faces,” said Michael Berry, a political science professor at University of Colorado Denver.

He says we should expect more executive action, but major reforms will have to be signed off by another branch of government.

“When we talk about major kinds of reforms or economic stimulus or investing more in public health, those sorts of investments likely require congressional approval,” said Berry.

Congress controls funding for the federal government, but it can’t act nearly as quickly as the president can.

Some of the areas Biden has issued executive orders in are the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy, immigration, the environment and civil rights.

“I think the signal from the administration is that immigration is going to be an important item on their agenda and some of the substance of some of the announcements we’re seeing is they’ve appeared to be taking seriously some of the promises that the Biden-Harris campaign made,” said César Garcia Hernandez, a professor of Law at the University of Denver.

The Biden administration issued multiple orders and memos reinforcing its stance on immigration including reaffirming DACA and halting construction on the boarder wall.

Possibly the most important task of his presidency is reining in the pandemic and increasing vaccine distribution is a key part of that.

“And one of the problems is that if something really boring happens like you don’t have enough caps for your vials. That’s just as bad as if something went wrong in manufacturing of the vaccine itself,” said Govind Persad, also a professor at the University of Denver.

He has been keeping an eye on the new president's response to the pandemic.

That will include using federal resources and making more of a national war time effort to fight the virus.

“One big aspect of this I’m talking about is using federal resources to support states to have high capacity sites for doing vaccinations. This is where the analogy of a war time effort might be interesting,” said Persad.

Congress will have a lot on their plate dealing with a possible impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, leaving a lot of these issues to Biden and the executive branch.

CINCINNATI —

As the parent of two Cincinnati public school students, Roger Jackson is curious to see if district leaders will require teachers to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

"We've never been through this type of thing before," Jackson said. "It's like just shoot and see what happens, you know what I mean."

Since a fully approved coronavirus vaccine is now part of the arsenal that could finally stop COVID-19 in its tracks, Jackson hopes teachers have to take the shot.

"Everybody's entitled to their own opinions and outcomes and what they choose to do," the father of two teenagers said. "But I feel like, you know, the kids and the teachers – because of their situation of being in such close contact every day -- I feel like they should."

Jackson's view is shared by members of CPS' Board Policy and Equity Committee.

"I think I’m inclined to support a vaccine requirement," committee member Ben Lindy said.

But Lindy isn't sure what a vaccine requirement for teachers and other workers in the district would look like.

"I think there are different choices about how we do it," Lindy said. "One is a blanket requirement. One is a requirement or a mask. One is a requirement or a test."

If board members do implement a requirement, Julie Sellers, president of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, wonders if it would apply to vaccine-eligible students 12 and older. Sellers also said she hopes vaccine reluctance won't lead to lost jobs.

"I don’t want to have to get into a legal battle over this," Sellers said. "I don’t want to go and have to justify this. But people have statutory rights on terminations."

That's one of many issues the board needs to consider quickly, since colder air will soon force students and teachers into closer quarters indoors.

"There is a reason, medically, there's a reason seasonally, to be focused on it," committee member Eve Bolton said.

After meeting Thursday, CPS' Board Policy and Equity Committee will meet again Sept. 13. That's when a vote on a vaccine requirement for CPS staff members could happen, meaning first shots would be required to go into teachers' arms as soon as the first day of October.

CLEVELAND — Aubrey Lewis has been a nurse at University Hospitals for four years, and for nearly the last year of that time, her work has been dedicated to fighting COVID-19.

“I work with COVID-19 patients on a daily basis,” she said.

She received her first dose of the Moderna vaccine around Jan. 20.

“When I got my vaccine, initially, I did not have any side effects at all,” she said.

But after a few days, she noticed swelling in one of her lymph nodes.

“I felt under my armpit to see if there was anything there and I felt a lump. It was kind of hard, but still mobile, it moved around,” she said.

As a nurse, it made her nervous.

“I was like, ’that’s a weird spot to have a tender lymph node,’ but as soon as I put two and two together—that I had just got the COVID vaccine on that side—I figured it was related to that,” she said.

But she did look it up.

“I did a little bit of research and it seemed like a lot of women had thought that the swollen lymph node in their axillary area, which is like their armpit area, they thought it was a breast cancer or like a breast malignancy," she said.

Dr. Holly Marshall with University Hospitals Radiology and Breast Imaging Department, said as more and more people are getting vaccinated, they’re getting more calls from women concerned that their swollen lymph nodes are a sign of breast cancer.

“We are asking everybody who is having a screening mammogram if they’ve received the COVID vaccine and, if so, what side and when the date was,” Marshall said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes about 11% of people who receive either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine will experience swollen lymph nodes after their first dose and that goes up to 16% after the second dose.

“It means that you’re making antibodies to fight infections, so later on if your body does see a COVID-19 virus, then you’ll be able to fight the infection,” Marshall said.

The swollen lymph nodes can appear anywhere from two to four days after you receive the shot.

“Wait a few weeks and if there’s no change then come in and we will evaluate it,” Marshall said.

Lewis said no matter the side effects, she is eager to receive her second dose.

“Going into the health care field, I knew that there would be times like this, to set the pace for everyone else, so I don’t have hesitation to get the second dose,” she said.

Marshall said it’s important to note that doctors do not suggest that women delay their annual mammogram screening and said those screenings should start when they’re 40 years old.

This story was originally published by Jessie Schultz at WEWS.

CHICAGO — A massive shortage of school bus drivers is causing in a major bump in the road to reopening schools. Without drivers, some bus routes are being canceled, causing tens of thousands of students to be stranded.

One district is paying parents $700 for each child they drive to school themselves. Another is offering families mileage reimbursement.

From Southern California to the Northeast, down to Florida, a nationwide bus driver shortage has reached a crisis level for school districts across the country. It’s the worst some have ever seen.

“I think student transportation is really at a breaking point. We have had a bus driver shortage for years, but COVID has really accelerated those trends,” said Joanna McFarland, CEO and founder of HopSkipDrive, a school ride service that operates a fleet of cars and SUVs in nine states.

The company is a sort of rideshare for kids.

“I think parents feel that this is a local problem, because they feel it with their own school district. But this is something that we're seeing across the country,” McFarland said.

Thousands of bus driver positions remain unfilled as older drivers leave. It’s a simmering problem, say experts, exacerbated by the pandemic.

“The average age of a school bus driver put them close to being in retirement, but also put them in a really vulnerable population for COVID. And so, a number of school bus drivers just retired,” said John Bailey, a non-resident senior fellow who studies transportation at the American Enterprise Institute.

In a March survey by HopSkipDrive, more than 78% of school transportation professionals said the bus driver shortage was a problem for their schools.

Last week, the Pittsburgh Public Schools district announced it would have to delay the opening of school for two weeks due to the transportation crisis. Across Florida, dozens of districts are struggling to staff bus routes, and in Illinois, one company is offering a $3,000 signing bonus for open bus driver positions.

So far, there doesn’t appear to be a coordinated national effort to confront the current driver shortage. Some districts surveyed say it could be months before they get a handle on it.

“There just aren't enough drivers to drive enough buses to pick up enough kids,” said Bailey. “If we want to get kids back in person for in-person learning, we're going to have to address the school bus driver crisis and do it quickly.”

Bailey says there a couple of things that can be done to help mitigate the shortage.

Financial incentives, like hiring bonuses, could help. Governors could use a portion of the American Rescue Plan’s $350 billion to fund these benefits.

Bailey also says there should be an easing of regulatory pathways to bring on more drivers. It’s something that has been log-jammed by the lengthy process of getting a commercial driver’s license, which has only gotten longer due to COVID-19 DMV closures.

“And lastly, we should be looking at innovation,” said Bailey. “There's so many new innovators and entrepreneurs popping up.”

Entrepreneurs like McFarland say it’s time to think outside the box.

“We are feeling the severity of this problem right now, but this is not a problem that is going away. It really is here to stay, and we do need to get creative and really think about what the future of student transportation looks like.”

It’s a question many may be forced to consider in the coming weeks.

CHICAGO — Nearly a year in, most are feeling the crushing weight of this pandemic, especially working moms. Juggling a career, remote schooling and just the day-to-day can be overwhelming. Experts say the burden on mothers is untenable and something has to give.

For work-from-home business owner and mom Rebecca Nguyen, each day is a delicate balancing act.

“I used to have more of an office area,” said Nguyen. “I worked at a desk that looked out a window and now, I work on our kitchen counter.”

The Chicago mother of three, including two remote learners — a 2^nd grader and a 4^th grader — admits at times, the pressure has been overwhelming.

“Losing it means screaming pretty loud at my kids, which I always feel bad about. But then it's like, I reached my breaking point that day,” she said.

Research shows that the increased need for child care has put a strain on working parents of both genders, but overall, mothers who have always carried a heavier load continue to do so during the COVID-19 crisis.

“I've definitely had like my struggles and challenges,” said Susannah Lago, the president and founder of Working Moms of Milwaukee, a community engagement support group connecting some 4,000 women.

“It really does come down to like admitting when it's too much and you need assistance and there is no shame in that,” she said.

Experts say a year of remote work, school and isolation is taking its toll on working mothers. They’re tired, and for good reason.

“What happens when we have all those demands on us during a workday? We end up losing our feeling of productivity. We end up feeling a sense of being ineffective,” said Dr. Claire Nicogossian, an assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University and author of the new book "Mama, You Are Enough: How to Create Calm, Joy and Confidence Within the Chaos of Motherhood."

“There isn't enough support for moms,” said Nicogossian. “And in terms of when do they get a break? When is this going to end?”

Nicogossian, who’s also a mom to four daughters, says it’s critical that mothers understand that they’re not failing.

“Let's give yourself a big pat on the back and highlight your strengths. You know you are a mama warrior, and you are moving forward, and you are doing the best that you can.”

Nguyen says she’ll go for a run or a swim for self-care. But taking care of herself, she says, is not just about her own well-being.

“I can then be available and not have those freak outs,” she said. “To be able to be kind of a solid person that they can feel like ‘OK mom isn't scared, mom feels OK, I'm going to feel OK.’”