Frontline Struggles: ICU Amid COVID-19 Surge

More than 400,000 Americans have been killed by the coronavirus. That's more Americans than were killed in all of World War II, President Biden pointed out this week. He calls his new plan to fight the pandemic a "wartime effort."

That effort begins with taking charge of a bottlenecked vaccine rollout. NPR pharmaceutical correspondent Sydney Lupkin reports on several factors that are slowing the process down. And NPR's Yuki Noguchi explores why it may take some time for pharmacies to become major vaccine distribution sites.

The need for more vaccine is a national story, but the wait is especially excruciating in Los Angeles. NPR's Leila Fadel visited one hospital pushed to the brink, where doctors compare their work to "battlefield medicine."

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